How failure of ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ forced Aamir Khan to look for the safety net of ‘Forrest Gump’ remake

Any film remake, official or otherwise, comes with its set of trouble. One of the reasons actors and producers often choose to remake films — directors, usually, aren't too kicked with the thought of reinterpreting as much — is that it's a tried and tested story with greater chances of succeeding. This could well be why Aamir Khan opted to remake Forrest Gump (1994) as Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) at such a point in his career. While most look at successful or, dare one say, the great films an actor featured in to gauge their body of work, it’s interesting to see what films failed or the actor left to get an exciting perspective to their oeuvre.

 

The official remake of the multi-Oscar winning 1994 Robert Zemeckis-directed Forrest Gump, Laal Singh Chaddha, is adapted for the Indian screen by actor Atul Kulkarni and directed by Advait Chandan, a long-time associate of Aamir Khan, who previously helmed Secret Superstar (2017). It has been reported that Kulkarni had been nurturing the dream of Indianising Eric Roth's screenplay for over a decade, and Khan, reportedly, had been working on the idea for over 14 years. The film has been in the making for a few years, with the Covid-19 pandemic delaying it further.

 

Much like most Aamir Khan films, Laal Singh Chaddha seems to be perfectly balanced and brilliantly packaged. In other words, everything seems perfect right from the buzz generated by a photograph of Khan's look, he plays a Sikh in the film, to the hint of the film's first song, 'Kahaani', and now the trailer. Although one should know better than to judge a book by its cover, or a film by its trailer, Laal Singh Chaddha is the kind of 'product' where the consumer (read audience) will be guided through the course to proffer the proper reaction at the right time. As expected, Laal Singh Chaddha's trailer has grabbed eyeballs. Unless something drastic happens, the fascination for Hanks' beloved performance, Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor's presence, crowd-pleasing music and what have you, should ensure that the film hits the bullseye at the box office.

 

The safety net offered by the range of Forrest Gump is what probably played a significant role in Khan's decision to remake the film. In the pre-Covid world, 50 plus stars, especially the three Khans — Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh — and Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar were in a different situation from where they find themselves today. With films such as Dangal (2016) and Secret Superstar, Aamir Khan had come to a space where he was seen as a top-notch box office star. Besides being beyond the number game, he also seemed to be far removed from trying something as experimental as Shah Rukh Khan in Zero (2018). At that point, Khan was looking at playing then Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma in a biopic called Saare Jahan Se Achcha. There were reports that it would be his last film for a while as he was ready to commit to his Rs 1,000-crore magnum opus Mahabharat, which was supposed to be bankrolled by Mukesh Ambani. However, the commercial failure of Thugs of Hindostan (2018) changed everything.

 

Since his breakthrough Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Aamir Khan has been ahead of the curve. He was amongst the first superstars in his generation; he was famous for doing one film at a time, he refused more films than anyone else and often redefined the paradigm. While Govinda is seen as the leading man who gave comedy the A-list status, Aamir Khan infused comedy more organically for the leading man with films such as Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin (1991) and Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke (1993). Khan was also among the first in his generation to gain creative veto on films. He supposedly got producer Mukesh Bhatt to replace his brother, Mahesh, and niece, Pooja, as the director and leading lady on Ghulam (1998). He reportedly got Rani Mukherji's voice dubbed in Ghulam when the sound recordist on both Ghulam and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) was the same. The latter went ahead with her 'original' voice. Moreover, it was Aamir Khan's Ghajini (2008) that started the 1980s-esque south Indian cinema-inspired trend in the 2000s that spawned Wanted (2009), Dabangg (2010), Singham (2011), Rowdy Rathore (2012), R…Rajkumar (2013), etc.

 

By 2018, Aamir Khan seemed to be losing touch with the typical filmy film, which explains why he attempted a Thugs of Hindostan. It also gave him a chance to do an out and out comic character but look at how things changed post its debacle. Had Thugs of Hindostan succeeded, Khan might not have tried to change gears. He would have merrily done the Rakesh Sharma biopic, and had Mahabharat not fallen apart, he wouldn't have tried a revival of sorts at 55 by playing the desi Forrest Gump. The film gives him a shot to play the kind of character that he has made his calling card — an ordinary man who emerges a hero by overcoming overwhelming odds and transforms into something extraordinary. Be that as it may, unlike the original, which wasn't burdened by expectations — Tom Hanks was not the global star that he went on to become; the book on which the film was based was barely recalled; and Robert Zemeckis was not the kind of filmmaker whose films would make you sit up, etc — Laal Singh Chaddha seems too designed to be a simple heart-warming tale of the underdog.

 

The post-Covid entertainment world has changed. It will be challenging for the stars in their mid-50s to find space in the new scheme of things. The average viewer today might not accept the same 'goody, goody' Aamir Khan, and it's not like he doesn't get opportunities to reintroduce himself to the current generation; he chooses to walk a different path. He reportedly walked out of the remake of the Tamil thriller Vikram Vedha as he was supposed to have asked for lots of changes in the script to make it a ‘China-friendly’ film.

 

The writer is a film historian and author. Views expressed are personal.

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“They think I am too old to make films,” auteur maestro Shyam Benegal is back

The prolific and brilliant auteur director Shyam Benegal is back with a new film after 12 years. His last film Well Done Abba featured Boman Irani and Sammir Dattani in lead roles .

Where were you for 12 years, Sir?

(Laughs) Where was I? I was right here. But our film industry was ignoring me. They probably felt I am too old to make films anymore.

Not true. You may be 87, but you seem to be in good health?

By God’s grace, I am in good health. I am as alert as I was ten or twenty years ago. But how do I convince the producers that nothing has changed?

Well, Paul Verhoeven who is 83 directed Benedetta last year? Woody Allen continues to be super-prolific at 86?

That’s the West for you. In India, the rules are somewhat different. Since I directed Well Done Abba in 2010 no one came forward to offer me a film until now.

You are very excited about your new film?

I am! I have had a deep fascination for the life and politics of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. When this opportunity to make a film on his life came my way from Bangladesh I was all for it.

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How was the experience of working with Bangladeshi actors?

Oh, it was an absolute pleasure! Those actors are so dedicated and so underused. Arifin Shuvoo who plays Mujibur Rahman is phenomenal. So are the Bangladeshi actors in my film it’s titled Mujib: The Making Of A Nation.

I think the last major Bangladeshi actor to work in India was Babita in Mrinal Sen’s Ashani Sanket?

Is it? I can’t remember. But I do know that there is a lot of underused talent in Bangladesh. My actors in the Mujibur biopic are simply brilliant. There is Dibya Joyti who plays the younger portions of Mujibur’s life, Nusrat Imrose Tisha as Mujibur’s wife and Nusrat Faria as Sheikh Hasina and many more. I am hoping this film will bring them the recognition they deserve.

This is not the first biopic you have directed on a controversial political figure?

I had directed a biopic on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in 2005 with Sachin Khedekar. I wish more people had seen it.

Do you see any censor trouble for this film?

None at all. Mujib's life is something we all need to celebrate. History has neglected him for too long.

Have you ever had any censor trouble?

Yes, Nishant was cut. There was a scene of Anant Nag and a girl making love behind a tree. They wanted it cut, so we cut it. My Bhumika was snipped. In Manthan, there were two cuts. Otherwise, they would have given me an ‘A’ certificate. One cut was where Girish Karnad was explaining artificial insemination in cattle. These cuts never made any sense to me.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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Akshay Kumar is distressfully inadequate as Samrat Prithviraj

Sanjay Dutt—God bless his imposing personality—plays the dignified comic relief in Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s well-meaning historical misfire which is in desperate need of a dignified dimension.

The counter-enervated epic starts with a blinded Prithviraj, played by a clueless Akshay Kumar, fighting lions in gladiator-style stadium, as hundreds of spectators cheer and encourage the lions to make a meal out of Prithviraj.

I could understand the crowds’ enthusiasm: watching a blind Indian ruler grappling with hungry lions is their equivalent of the Bigg Boss finale.

It is a decisive moment in Indian history, as well as its rather tame and emasculated interpretation in this film. Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi means well. He wants his binary-narration to move in two different directions. But the battle-ground valour doesn’t work, largely because Akshay Kumar looks like he has never gotten on top of a horse in his life. I am sure that is not entirely the case: while holidaying with his family he must have had many opportunities to trot till he dropped.

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But this one is not about touristic trotting. Right from the moustache to other trappings of Rajputana pride and valour, Akshay strikes a false note right across the narrative's hectic but vacuous horizon. He seems to be enjoying the thought of playing this attractive figure in Indian history. But like a child who doesn't know how to operate a coveted toy, Akshay is completely at a loss as to how to make Prithviraj a credible comprehensive and rounded character.

Akshay, a fine actor in some films especially Hera Pheri and Airlift, seems to forget that he is not in this for the ride. That he is supposed to be playing a Hindu ruler who was a fair and just warrior who gave his enemy so much slack that he (the enemy) just felt lucky, and Prithviraj was a feminist long before Mary Wollstonecraft. So when he marries the adamant Sanyukta (who fell in love with Prithviraj without seeing him) and suggests that she join him in his durbar as an equal, Akshay makes it sound like he is inviting his screen wife to smoke pot with him.

The actor, for all his earnestness (don’t miss the real pearl necklace and the designer jewellery) just doesn’t get the point. As played by Akshay Kumar, Prithviraj Chauhan is a warrior and a feminist and also a bit of a wimp, like Shahid Kapoor’s Ratan Singh, that upright somewhat prissy ruler in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat who insisted on sleeping with the enemy (in a manner of speaking) although he gets repeatedly backstabbed.

There is a thin line between righteousness and sheer stupidity. In the brutal betrayal of Muhammad Ghori (Manav Vij) effective but surprisingly subdued) lies the key to this quaint lifeless pseudo-historical costume drama where everyone talks about valour but little of it is evident in the poor, nay impoverished, war scenes where the arrows fly faster than bullets causing grievous injury to nothing except the film’s epic design which remains unfulfilled and half-finished like an embroidered cloth that was abandoned halfway.

While Akshay is distressfully miscast, Manushi Chhillar’s raw inexperience shows in every frame. Even in the Holi song dance, her choli fits her like a glove; her nazaakat (airs &grace) barely registers beyond the surface level. She does have her moments, though. The jauhar (self-immolation) sequence in the climax is accompanied by Sunidhi Chauhan’s robust singing which is more valorous than anything you will see or hear in this aborted epic excursion.

Chants of Har Har Mahadev rent the soundtrack, reminding us that Hindu governance ended abruptly with Prithviraj, that in fact, he was the first harbinger of Hindutva and also the founding father of feminism in Hindustan. It’s a huge responsibility to shoulder and one that the on-screen Prithviraj is sadly not up to. Akshay Kumar doesn’t know where to begin.

Samrat Prithviraj has zero chemistry between the onscreen Prithviraj and Samyukta. They sing and dance and at one point in the excitable plot, he tells her that all poetry fails in describing her words. But it’s all words words words, empty words which bereft of a creative concept seem self-mocking rather than epic.

Is Samrat Prithviraj a disappointment? Yes! Is it a washout? No. But it misses the epic vision and the designer lyricism of a Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period dramas by a wide margin. This is neither a full-fledged costume drama nor a bio-pic on a Hindu king who ran off with his wife from her swayamvar, thereby making her the first runaway bride of civilization, long before Julia Roberts got there.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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Amber Heard only represents herself; her loss can’t be seen as the end of a movement

One of the closely watched trials in recent history, the verdicts in the two Johnny Depp-Amber Heard cases, one filed in the UK, which Depp lost, and the other in the United States, where a jury ruled in Depp’s favour, is a watershed moment for many reasons. There was significant media glare and scrutiny during both trials, but what makes the whole Depp-Heard issue key is how the two court cases panned out. Among other things, there is speculation that the issue would rekindle the debate on the #MeToo issue, and what it entails. Whether, as some women’s rights activists have claimed, the trial's intent was “to roll back the minor progress made by the #MeToo movement”.

Accused of spousal violence, Johnny Depp had filed a libel suit in the United States against Heard, his ex-wife, for tarnishing his reputation via an Op-ed piece she had written for The Washington Post. According to Depp, the headline of the piece, “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change,” written during the peak of the #MeToo movement, resulting in a loss of work. Depp had also sued The Sun in the United Kingdom for an article making allegations that he was a “wife beater” thanks to its headline: “GONE POTTY: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”

Amber Heard had first accused Depp of domestic violence days after filing for divorce in 2016. Depp denied these charges, and his lawyers had issued a statement. Still, since then, the multi-Oscar nominated actor, considered one of the finest of his generation, has experienced a downward spiral. There was a campaign against Depp every time there was some development of him being discussed or cast in an A-list Hollywood project. Depp thanked the jury, and there were some reports of Amber Heard planning to oppose the verdict. During the period of the trial, Amber Heard’s team accused Depp’s side of using social media bots to garner outrage against her; Depp’s lawyer claimed that Heard was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.” Depp’s reputation of being a “bad boy” in the 1980s, many of his "troubled" or “struggling" onscreen characters "justified" his off-screen behaviour, including clashes with people and excesses with drugs and alcohol.

As expected, reactions from both sides and their supporters have been loud.

In the crossfire of reactions and comments, some of the big questions would, in all likelihood, continue to remain unanswered. The #MeToo movement raised awareness about the degree of injustice towards women in the workplace; however, at the same, it might not be the best service to the movement to make it gender-based. One of the significant learnings for men post-#MeToo was that the idea that they didn’t know their behaviour was bad or women made a mountain out of a molehill was largely untrue. In this light, it’s more than necessary to make structural changes to a system that often hurts and shames the victim or never gives them any legal recourse.

In the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard instance, a jury deliberated and delivered a verdict based on the evidence presented. In this light, Depp stands vindicated on many of his stances, and it goes to show that those presumptions solely based on a person’s gender make it unfair for either of the genders. The loss of livelihood ensuing from public bias is also something that needs to be considered. Media coverage, especially of high profile cases shapes public opinion, which in turn strengthens the basis since the issues are looked at in a generic manner and not on a case to case basis.

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Also Read

Explained: Why Johnny Depp remains a ‘wife beater’ in UK but wins defamation case in US

Tracing Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial as shaped by the dark side of fandom

Amber Heard 'absolutely cannot' pay $10 mn penalty to Johnny Depp: Lawyer

Of fan merch and support signs: What the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial says about stan culture

In Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, attorney Camille Vasquez takes centrestage

Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of sexually assaulting her with liquor bottle

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While Dior stood by Depp, he was face of their Sauvage men's scent, the actor reportedly lost a $22.5 million deal to star in a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film following the public outcry after Heard’s op-ed piece. At the same time, Amber Heard’s loss or victory can’t be seen as the end or furthering of a movement as she only represents herself, and each case of domestic abuse is different and must be seen on its merits.

The writer is a film historian and writer. Views expressed are personal. 

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Walk of Courage: How an Indo-German collaboration is an apt tribute to India on 75th Independence Day

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations are in full swing. As part of the celebrations, the Embassy of Germany has come out with a riveting short film titled ‘Walk of Courage’, which recently was screened to thunderous applause at the India Habitat Centre as part of the 2022 Habitat International Film Festival. The short, directed by Johannes Olszewski, offers a dynamic and atmospheric portrait of the bustling city of New Delhi, its people, and its history.

“I am very happy that we could show our short film ‘Walk of Courage’ at the Habitat International Film Festival. We are now trying to take it to other film festivals in India and we hope that we can spread it. I think it shows some beautiful pictures of India and of Delhi as I know it and love it and as the director Johannes Olszewski has come to know and love it,” rejoices Sebastian Fuchs, the spokesperson of the Embassy of Germany.

The idea for the short came into being when the director Johannes Olszewski reached out to Fuchs. “I started as the spokesperson of the Embassy of Germany in August last year and two things came together. First, the Ministry of External Affairs asked us along with the other embassies if we could organise an event to celebrate 75 years of India’s independence. Second, Johannes Olszewski contacted me in October and told me about his previous projects and where all he has gone to shoot with the internationally renowned slackliner Alexander Schulz. That’s when we thought of connecting Alexander with the best slackliners here in India and then we tried to do this together at a historic location for people to see in order to celebrate 75 years of India’s Independence,” reveals Fuchs. “The Indian slackliners / trickliners, Mohit Tanwar, Megha Thiara, Adarsh Bhat, Dhruv Chakkamadam and Adhwaith Manohar, are in the centre of the short film,” he adds.

As for Olszewski, he was quite keen to capture Delhi as per his cinematic vision. “I wanted to create a cinematic portrait of Delhi. My goal was to set the tone with the wide shots in the afterglow of the evening, going through the night with all the colourful lights and noise, and then start the main narration in the magic hours of Delhi’s peaceful mornings. I still remember my first days in India very well. I was quite overwhelmed and also intimidated by some things — mostly by the pace of life and the traffic,” recollects Olszewski.

It was a major challenge for Olszewski to find the right narrative for a five-minute short revolving around a momentous occasion such as 75 years of India’s Independence. “Together with the screenwriters Cody Christensen and Luisa Buellesbach we read a lot of Indian poetry, speeches and short stories, trying to set the right tone. The final text is written in a way it can be understood as an analogy to Independence, but most of all it is a homage to taking risks in life and being brave, either as an individual or as a nation,” reveals Olszewski.

During the pre-production stage itself, it was decided that the film needs to have a celebratory quality. “We thought of making this a celebration. Now, slackliners walking on a highline may be very courageous but this per se is not celebratory. So we thought of bringing together India's creative people in a spirit celebrating Indian culture, Indian sports, and Indian art. So we teamed up with many creative people such as Mohammed Abood from Boxout.fm, Sagar Singh who is a creative artist, Yogesh Saini from Delhi Street Art, and a 14-year-old trapeze artist from Mumbai named Ganga who is the central figure of the film, among others,” explains Fuchs.

Olszewski, to his credit, was committed to creating an authentic project that highlights the close bond of friendship and cooperation between India and Germany. “By showing old and modern parts of India and by closely working together with the local slackline community, we were able to include a raw and modern sport, the values of which perfectly matched the principal goals of our project: Trust, friendship, togetherness, diversity and cooperation,” rejoices Olszewski.

While making the film the creative team had to deal with many challenges. The fact that the venue was Red Fort greatly intensified the task. “To gather all the permissions required seemed almost unrealistic at the beginning. Our undertaking was not about playing a concert next to the Red Fort or just organising some food stalls. We had to convince the decision-makers to let us rig a 30-meter-high slackline across one of the most important sights of India: the place where the country’s independence was declared. Besides this huge stunt, we wanted to include further artistic showcases, such as a live DJ setup, street artists, a slackline trickline, catering and, of course, slackline workshops for the visitors. But, Sebastian was making the impossible possible by simply believing in it,” recollects Olszewski.

Despite the difficulties, the resolve to do something different seemed to have made the impossible possible. “We wanted to do something that has an impact and that is for many Indians to see because that’s how we understand modern public diplomacy. Right from the onset we were quite clear that we didn’t want to do the usual diplomatic podium discussion. And so there was no location better than the Red Fort for something like this. But then it came with many challenges. We had to talk to the Indian authorities for permission. We talked to the MEA and we talked to the Archaeological Survey of India as well and they principally agreed that we can put a highline close to the Red Fort,” reveals Fuchs.

Realised during a day-long event held at the Red Fort on 26 February 2022, featuring Indian and German slackliners and artists, as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, Walk of Courage is much more than just a film. Walter J Lindner, Ambassador of Germany to India, and MeenakshiLekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture, were also present on the occasion. “In general, it was never just about the film. The main priority was to curate a beautiful event that everybody could participate in for free. Secondarily, it was about creating a production that captured the soul of the shared event. The production of ‘Walk of Courage’ was very demanding, but I had the best team around that one could imagine. I really would like to express my thanks to Smriti Mishra of the Ministry of External Affairs and Navratna Pathak of the Archaeological Survey of India. Without their help and their trust, we could not have realized our project,” reveals Olszewski.

For Fuchs, it wasn’t just another work assignment owing to the emotional attachment to the project. “I think it was challenging at times. The process took its time and sometimes it required some extra effort, some extra meetings, calls and some extra location visits. It’s a project that I have been personally very invested in. Some of the slackliners and also Johannes and Alexander, they lived at my place for some time and the project really became a very big part of my life during that time. But given the feedback that we have been receiving I think it was totally worth it going the extra mile,” rejoices Fuchs.

Slacklining started in 1980 when two American climbers in the Yosemite national park in California looked for a new thrill and spanned their climbing ropes between two trees. Today, it is a fast-growing sport around the world with thousands of young people enjoying park life in cities in a new and exciting way.‘Walk of Courage’ puts a much-needed spotlight on the Indian slackline community.

“India has this big and constantly growing slackline community. It was a big honour for us to work together with the local slackliners. The Indian slackline community is very well connected and does amazing projects all over the place. I personally hope that more people see a chance in slacklining in the future, rather than a danger.It is a sport that I like to compare with meditation. It is calm, not harmful to the environment, deals with fears and has plenty of benefits also for the motor skills of children,” signs off Olszewski.

The author is an Indian critic and journalist who has been covering cinema, art and culture for over 10 years. Views expressed are personal.

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Farah Khan on KK: He was totally non-filmy and was just interested in his job

On the first day of IIFA, Farah Khan talks about the speciality of IIFA awards and how it is different from other award shows in the entertainment industry. She feels that as an anchor for the IIFA function, one needs to be really careful that she doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings. She remembers KK and believes that he was truly an organic artist. Excerpts from the interview:

Tell us about your performance at IIFA rocks.

The tunes are never mine, but I am going to make them dance on my little finger. Performing for the live audience we are doing after a very long time. You better be careful and we are going to make everybody dance to our tunes. There is going to be a tribute for Bappi da (Bappi Lahiri). At IIFA Rocks we have an in memoriam for KK also. Many people from the music industry have left us and gone from the music industry this year.

Your association with KK?

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I met him when he came for Main Hoon Na song and a couple of other songs. And of course for Om Shanti Om when we wanted Ajab Si Ajab Si, we felt he was the right person. He was such a lovely guy and totally non-filmy and totally not from the industry type. He was just interested in his job. He used to come, do his job and go. He left us just that way. He was not interested in networking. He was just not publicity crazy. KK was one of the most organic artists we have had.

How important is networking in the entertainment industry?

Networking is important in every industry. Why just the entertainment industry. Even in the corporate world and for journalists too you know how networking is important.

Speciality of IFFA…

There are a lot of award shows, but nothing like IIFA where you get to see Bollywood upfront, they get a chance to interact with Salman Khan and all the big stars whoever is performing. I think it is a big moment for the country in which IIFA is being held because suddenly it gives a boost like a vodka shot.

It has been a long time that we have not seen you behind the camera, so when is that happening again?

Two years got washed out because of COVID. Before that I was really enjoying my life, watching my kids grow up, travelling. But again I am gearing up to make a movie. My films defy all genres because there is everything in it. Every film is on the digital platform now, so it is going to be a pan India movie for me.

You are amazing as a host, but how important is it to draw a fine line when it comes to making jokes?

It is very important as a host to draw the line when it comes to joking with someone and humiliating someone. So, you need to be very careful that you don’t hurt anybody’s feelings. I am here for over thirty years in the entertainment industry and everyone now understands my sense of humour. The scariest part of a joke to me is when you crack one and nobody laughs at it.

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Jungle Cry movie review: Abhay Deol’s sincere sports film is still an aimless Jhund

Language: Hindi

Nothing gives away a film’s lack of self-belief, more than its reliance on a voice-over (VO). Widely considered as the last, laziest crutch employed by a screenwriter/director/editor when the written scene or blocked footage are far from having the intended effect, I can almost hear a filmmaker’s mournful tsk when they cut to an explanatory VO, filling in the blanks and telling the audience what to feel.

In Sagar Ballary’s Jungle Cry, streaming on Lionsgate Play, the screenplay cuts to the film’s characters speaking to us in documentary-styled clips, where nothing is left to chance by the film’s writers (Dipankar Giri, Diane Charles and Shubhodeep Pal). Whatever the characters aren’t able to communicate through acting, they emphasise in their chaste Hindi VOs. (For eg: “main bilkul ghabra gaya tha uss din…) It’s a choice that was also employed by Aaron Sorkin in his last venture – Being The Ricardos, where actors played the older version of characters to fill people in on the context behind the making of one of America’s most-watched television sitcoms of all time – I Love Lucy. While Sorkin uses the different POVs to allow his patented style of Jungle Cry, also based on the rather incredible real-life story of 13 tribal kids picking up a rugby ball merely four months before a Junior Rugby World Cup championship that took place in London in 2011, uses it less effectively.

Rudra Jena – Abhay Deol just taking on an Oriya name and playing himself like he has been doing for nearly a decade – is a football coach at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), a private institute that helps harness the tribal kids’ potential through life’s great equaliser – sport. Backed by Dr Achyutha Samanta (played by Atul Kumar – Hindi cinema and OTT platforms’ resident slippery, rude uncle) the kids are presented with an opportunity to participate in a Junior Rugby World cup. It’s an opportunity that simply parachutes in their life with the help of an English character called Paul Walsh (played by Stewart Wright) – shown to be a typical patronising foreigner, who oversells his “amazement” at the natural dexterity of the local kids, who have never picked up a rugby ball ever in their life. The opening scene sees a few kids unknowingly doing the rugby routine with a jar of marbles, trying to escape their local bullies.

Granted that the film is also based on a real-life incident, and has been lying in the cans for three years, and yet it’s hard to forget how the film surfaced only a few months after Nagraj Manjule’s Jhund, also based on a real-life figure who rounded up a bunch of impoverished kids and offered them a ‘way out’ through sport. It’s a whole sub-genre in world cinema, and there’s only so much one can do to build the stakes in an underdog sports drama. And yet, like Jhund and even last year’s Sarpatta Parambarai showed that it was possible to revive a genre if the maker delved into the specificity of its setting.

Ballary, largely a hit-and-miss director, who made his debut with the adequate Bheja Fry (2007), brings an outsider gaze to the lives of these children – who often escape challenging domestic situations.

There’s a general-ness in the way he depicts the boys as a part of a monolith, instead of imbuing them with specific traits and personalities like Manjule does in the first half-hour of Jhund. 

Deol, who last played a character outside his comfort zone in Shanghai (2012), is… familiar. I’m not saying that all parts need a local dialect’s affliction in the way he speaks, but at this point it would also be great if Deol does literally anything to differentiate his last performance from his preceding performances in terms of physicality, in terms of speech or even in looks. It’s hard to tell one Abhay Deol performance from another in the last decade. 

A showcase for Dr Samantha – a real-life educationist and philanthropist – the film barely dips its toes into his life. Atul Kumar, a competent actor in his own right, hits the broad notes of Samantha’s generosity and selflessness with ease. But never do we see either Rudra or Dr Samantha as just… people. They’re always self-serious and ‘in character’, hardly allowing them any memorable humour. They’re always focused (like the film) on the cause.

It’s all the tired tropes from sports dramas all over again – the pre-interval make-or-break match, where our team seems to be losing in the first half, only to make a comeback in the second. It’s all so predictable at this point that I found myself yawning through most of it, even tempted to forward. Unlike Manjule’s film that slams the breaks in the latter half of the film, everything happens very smoothly and efficiently in Jungle Cry. Passports, visas appear out of thin air, money is arranged through one stray mention of a land being mortgaged to raise money for the world cup. It all seems to happen with the convenience of a Bollywood screenwriter’s pen.

All this means that a significant onus of the film’s merit falls on the actual on-field visuals, which aren’t half bad. The sequences are choreographed rather well, and there isn’t too many of agonising slo-mo moments to build the stakes of a scene. Ballary seems proficient in the way he shoots the sequences, giving us a picture of the actual ground and how a play is orchestrated. However, there also isn’t particularly novel about the arc of the team or the matches. Anyone who has seen Chak De! Knows how it works, right? How does one team play so terribly in one game, and then magically improve in the next? There seem to be missing pieces of the puzzle, which the makers seem to have sacrificed in favour of brevity and length. 

There’s also an unnecessary subplot about Rudra’s past traumas of a disappointed parent, and another Emily Shah as the team’s physio, Roshni – who seems to be working out of her own demons of a dead brother and estranged mother, which don’t seem to be integrated well into the overall narrative.

The real-life story behind Jungle Cry is ripe for a film adaptation, but despite the best intentions of Ballary’s film, it turns the fable almost ineffectual. This should have been a much better movie, only if the makers showed a little more courage to own the sports movie cliches, something Manjule did with assurance and zany energy, without any fear of upsetting audience expectation. Jungle Cry is a safe cause-and-effect equation adapted into a feature-length film.

Jungle Cry is currently streaming on Lionsgate Play

Rating: * 1/2

Tatsam Mukherjee has been working as a film journalist since 2016. He is based out of Delhi NCR.

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Singer KK passes away at the age of 53 after live performance in Kolkata

Well-known Bollywood singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, popularly known as KK, died in Kolkata on Tuesday night, officials said. He was 53.

KK was feeling unwell after reaching his hotel, following a performance at a concert in the evening where he sang for almost an hour, officials said. He was taken to a private hospital in south Kolkata where doctors declared him brought dead, they said.

Apart from fans, several members from the entertainment fraternity including Rahul Vaidya, Ashoke Pandit and others expressed their grief on social media.

Its really shocking news for music lovers 💔 Singer #KK, the man who sang about love and friendship has passed away. You will always be a big part of every 90s kid.

Rest In PEACE ♥️🙏 pic.twitter.com/dv97C95apB

— 〽️ (@Adi_tyaS_Indian) May 31, 2022

I hear singer KK just passed away. GOD what is really happening!!?? I mean WHAT IS HAPPENING. One of the nicest humans kk sir was. Gone too soon at 53.Beyond shocked. RIP sir. — RAHUL VAIDYA RKV (@rahulvaidya23) May 31, 2022

Singer KK never smoked or drank! Led the most simple non controversial non media hyped life. Complete family man. Jab bhi mujhe mile he met with so much of love & kindness. God! Too unfair! OM SHANTI.

— RAHUL VAIDYA RKV (@rahulvaidya23) May 31, 2022

It’s shocking & unbelievable . Well known singer KK is no more . He passed away due to massive heart attack while he was performing in Kolkatta just now . A great loss to the Indian music industry . Heartfelt condolences to his family and close ones. ॐ शान्ति ! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/Dpsy0UemxS — Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) May 31, 2022

"It's unfortunate that we could not treat him," a senior official of the hospital said. KK, known as a versatile singer, has recorded songs in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali, among other languages.

(With Inputs from PTI)

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Once Upon A Cinema: Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar — The making of a classic, twice over

Once Upon a Cinema is series which will illuminate the dark, unexplored crevices of Indian cinema. In it, the writer will showcase stories and faces long forgotten, share uncommon perspectives about stars and filmmakers, and recount tales that have never been told.

It was Aamir Khan who suggested that I include Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar in the book. Writing a book on cult films is no joking matter. One must be conscious of the various opinions on what constitutes “cult”. I used the powers vested on me as the author to say that only those films which didn’t do well commercially and later attained a cult following, will make the cut. And I made use of the same powers in deciding that Aamir’s early action film Raakh and Andaz Apna Apna (of course!) would be in the list. After a few months of hustling and cajoling and throwing up arms in despair, it was ultimately serendipity that led me to Aamir’s doorstep. We spoke about Raakh and Andaz at length, and I had found plenty more material than I had bargained for. And then the man tossed the idea at me. Jo Jeeta fits your definition, he said.

It seemed preposterous, initially. In my head, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was this behemoth of a film which stood the test of time. But Aamir had his notions about why it should be considered a cult film. It was a successful film, but it wasn’t as big a hit as they thought it would be. As compared to Mansoor’s colossal first film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, the second one had a tepid response. “But for me, it’s a better film than QSQT,” Aamir explained, “That’s what I personally feel. The roles of Sanjay Lal and Ratan Lal were well-written. So was the relationship of the two brothers, even Sanjay’s relationship with the two girls he falls in love with! One is the very glamorous girl he is smitten by, and the other who he feels for inside. He is not even aware that he likes her. It’s only in time that he realizes, this is the girl I really love. So it’s a story about growing up and coming of age. It has some amazing moments.”

This was early 2015, the Aamir I was talking to was portly and sported grey hair.  He had been shooting for Dangal. The parts with the grown-up Gita and Babita, evidently. He spoke about Nitesh Tiwari’s relationship with Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar: “Even today when I speak to Nitesh Tiwari who is directing Dangal, he tells me that Jo Jeeta was their film, you know. They used to have inter-IIT competitions in dramatics and sports, so the whole concept of Rajput and Model school, the privileged and the underdog…they really connected with that.”

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was Mansoor Khan’s pet project. But they had a rather torturous time making the film. Aamir set about telling me that story and helped me reach out to Mansoor as well. By this time, Mansoor had hung up his boots and had taken refuge in the hills. A phone conversation with him ensued. Mansoor Khan wrote Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar when he was a naive kid himself, trying to prove a point. He had studied engineering, realizing well in time that it was hardly his cup of tea; gadgets and cameras always fascinated him. Tinkering with video editing on a Sony recorder, he came upon the idea of making a film about redemption. He was aimless, just like the protagonist Sanjay Lal from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. That’s when he started writing. Ostensibly to warm himself up, he made a short film called Umberto with his friend Amole Gupte acting in it, and it was this short that his father happened to see and asked him to helm QSQT. Mansoor Khan obeyed.

QSQT was a sensation. It broke a few records and swept the awards season. Despite such adulation in his very first film, Mansoor Khan refused to revel in it and turned his attention to his pet project. The reason he had written the elder brother in Jo Jeeta... as a father figure instead of there being an actual father in the story, was because he was sick of the cliched father-son routine in Hindi films. But QSQT had already explored newer aspects of the relationship, with Aamir Khan playing son and Dilip Tahil as the father whose relationship doesn’t follow the usual filmic pattern. Enter Ramlal Sharma (Khulbhushan Kharbanda), father to Ratanlal and Sanjay Lal Sharma. And then stepped in the great Farah Khan, but not as a choreographer. As Mansoor told me over the phone, “Farah had approached me to choreograph Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. But I had already spoken to Saroj Ji (Khan)—I told her that, and said she can work as my assistant. She joined me as an assistant director and when she read the script, she said, ‘I have somebody in mind for the brother.’ She brought Mamik to me—the moment he walked into my office, I knew that this was guy who will play the brother Ratan Lal. We did a screen test, but I was very convinced that he was the one. Aamir was already a star. Dil had happened and QSQT had happened. So you needed someone who was believable as the brother who was one-up on Aamir. Mamik had a strong physique and yet had this endearing quality about him.’

Farah Khan brought in Mamik for the role, and he fit the slot perfectly. In time, as destiny would have it, she also became the choreographer for the film, when Saroj Khan took off without informing. Mani Ratnam’s Geethanjali (1989), his first Telugu film, was a great success both commercially as well as among critics. It was later dubbed in Tamil and Malayalam, and remade in Hindi three years later: Yaad Rakhegi Duniya (1992, mostly known for one song—Tere liye saari umar jagun). The Press especially went ga-ga over the female lead of the film, a British-Indian named Girija Shettar. She was offered the role of Anjali, Sanjay Lal’s childhood sweetheart. Nandita Morarji stepped in as Devika, the Veronica to Aamir Khan’s Archie. It would have been her debut in Hindi films. She was to be known by her screen name, Nagma.

Mansoor envisioned someone with athletic build and oodles of arrogance, for the role of Shekhar Malhotra. Akshay Kumar was famously auditioned for the role, but finally, it was Milind Soman who bagged the role. Aamir Khan said, ‘Milind Soman was this star athlete, full of arrogance—you know, the character is supposed to be very arrogant, sure of himself, really good at what he does, the girls love him. He is unbeatable, the Greek god. That’s how this role was written. When we cast Milind and we saw the test, we realized his voice and intonation lets him down. But the part was virtually written for him, because Milind is naturally arrogant. When he looks at you, you think you are something the cat brought in.’

The casting process seemingly completed, the crew of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was about to leave for Ooty, when something happened that made them go back to square one and look through those screen test videos again. That something was Baaghi (1990). Nagma who was playing Devika, backed out as she had been offered Baaghi opposite Salman Khan, the film that was to become her debut. The team went back to view the audition tapes, and this time they picked Karishma Pahuja to replace Nagma. Pahuja was a model and actress who had appeared with Aamir Khan in an FTII Diploma film that he did for his friend Inderjit Singh Bansal, Subah Subah. She was tested for the part earlier and had been the second choice after Nagma. She was cast for Devika and the shoot began at Coonoor and Ooty.

A sixty-day schedule was completed, shooting at Ooty, Coonoor and Western Catchments. Western Catchments, about 20 km away from Ooty is shrouded in clouds all year long, and one gets daylight for about three hours—from around 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. The cycle race was shot at Western Catchments, while juggling with daylight. The four-hour drive from Ooty was horrendous, the road condition in certain places was very bad. They had to start at 3 to even hope to reach the Catchments by 7 a.m. And then the wait began for the sun to peek from behind the clouds. After a twenty-day torturous and gruelling shoot, the cycle race was finally completed. About 80 per cent of the film had been shot in a two- month schedule, including most of the climax. The cast and crew returned to Mumbai and got back to their lives, without any clue that they had to do the whole thing all over again.

Aamir was shooting for another film when he got the call from Mansoor. It wasn’t working, he said. Karishma Pahuja as Devika was just not working. During the interview, Aamir maintained that Karishma did her best. But the way the role was conceived in the context of the movie, Pahuja didn’t fit. Mansoor was insistent they will have to shoot the film all over again, with a replacement. Aamir didn’t find the idea of re-shoot too enticing. He explained to me, “As an actor, as a creative person, it has already come out of you, it’s gone from you. Now when you are told you have to do it again, you start trying to remember what you had done then. How can I take it out again? It’s gone!’ But he also understood Mansoor’s point of view. He had to give in.

Karishma Pahuja was replaced by Pooja Bedi. Pooja was already a star in her own right. Back in the 90s, Vatsyayan’s legacy was revealed to adolescents across the length and breadth of urban India not via Mira Nair’s eponymous film, but through an ad campaign that popped up on good old Doordarshan one fine evening. A rather generously endowed woman was writhing in the shower while a good-looking lad tries to moor his boat, and later joins the lady in the shower. As we collected our jaws from the floor, another lady would whisper ‘Kama Sutra’ in the background. The week’s papers told us that the man was Marc Robinson, and the woman was Pooja Bedi. Pooja had a much-hyped debut in Vishkanya (1991), a film about mythical women with the ‘kiss of death’ (much like the Batman villain Poison Ivy) that poisoned the film itself. The very next film was the one that defined her career—as Devika in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar.

After this piece of recasting, the first thing they shot was the song “Jawan ho yaaron”. After the shoot, Girija Shettar, who was playing Anjali, said she was leaving. She was going back abroad and couldn’t continue the shoot unless Mansoor Khan could manage to wrap-up the shoot in a month. He felt helpless—the entire film had to be made all over again, so completing it within a month was out of the question. So Shettar had to go too. But she could still be seen in Jawaan ho yaaron as the girl in red who dances with Aamir Khan. Ayesha Jhulka joined the cast as Anjali. Upon the departure of Karishma and Girija, the only other cast member Aamir Khan had the most scenes with was Milind Soman. Now, Aamir and Mansoor seemed to have a rather difficult time with Soman. Since most of the principal cast had already been replaced, it was finally decided to replace him too. Eventually, a role that a future superstar had auditioned for and lost, and a supermodel didn’t seem to be doing justice to, came to Deepak Tijori. And Tijori owned tha character like nobody’s business.

And that’s how Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, a film which had been shot almost in its entirety, was on the floors again. All the scenes which had the earlier cast members in the frame, was filmed again, frame by frame.

(The story about the making of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was included in a chapter in my book In a Cult of their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office, which was published by Rupa Publications. I have extracted from the chapter generously.)

Amborish is a National Film Award winning writer, biographer and film historian.

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Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh come together for a sassy commercial

After their recent collaboration with Sooryavanshi and the announcement of the release date of their much-awaited film Cirkus, the blockbuster duo Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh are collaborating again for an exciting project.

The duo took to their social media and dropped a glimpse of their upcoming commercial masala entertainer that intrigued euphoria amongst the fans. Everyone is extremely eager to know what this upcoming entertainer could be.

Rohit Shetty wrote:

"Just a glimpse of how we shoot a noodle commercial...
I know gaadiyan isme bhi udd rahi hain lekin kya karein...

Seedha kaam toh humein aata hi nahi hai! #RanveerSinghXRohitShetty"

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A post shared by Rohit Shetty (@itsrohitshetty)

Ranveer Singh wrote: "Boss and Baba are Back together !!! 🔥🔥🔥 @itsrohitshetty #RanveerSinghXRohitShetty"

 

 

 

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‘Thinking of Him’: Looking into universality of Tagore’s friendship with Victoria Ocampo through an Indo-Argentine film​

Rarely one comes across a biographical cinematic production which explores both the personal life story and explores the meaning and power of ‘ideas’ of the ‘subject’ or the ‘individual. Case of the recent movie, Thinking of Him, an Indo-Argentine production, seamlessly slides between the foreground of a contemporary setting about the search for Rabindranath Tagore’s ideas about education by an Argentine school teacher and the historical background of an episode from his personal life of an encounter with Victoria Ocampo. According to film director Pablo Cesar, this alternating parallel tracks method was to emphasise the universality and timelessness of Tagore and his relationship with Victoria Ocampo.

Thinking of Him is based on the encounter and deep spiritual, platonic friendship between Tagore and Argentine high-society lady Victoria Ocampo. Tagore was the first Asian Nobel laureate, India’s most famous poet, music composer, thinker and philosopher and one of the most revered figures of his time. On the other hand, Ocampo, born in the highest strata of Argentine society, was a dashing, glamorous, intelligent, sensitive, strong-willed Socialite who strode tall amongst the crème de la crème of the Argentine bourgeoisie society. Victoria was known for ruffling feathers of the conservative elites of Buenos Aires with her unconventional, unfeminine and daring mannerisms and was widely scorned and ridiculed at large. There are scenes in the movie where passers-by in the streets of Buenos Aires are admonishing her while she is driving in her vehicle and the personal chambermaid warning her of the consequences in her family life of her conduct.

At a certain stage while living this ‘high’ life, Ocampo discovers Tagore’s poetry and is inexorably drawn toward the magic and mystique of both the person and his poems. This attraction to Tagore’s poetry leads her to yearn for a meeting with the colossus ‘sage philosopher’ himself.

Victor Banerjee plays the role of Tagore in the film and Ocampo is played by Argentine actress Eleonara Wexler. The film is directed by the Argentine film director Pablo Cesar with Suraj Kumar as the co-director/producer from the Indian side with the script being written by Jeronimo Toubes.

The hallowed encounter, as I would call it, finally happened in 1924 in Buenos Aires while Tagore was visiting Latin America and was fatigued from his extensive travels accompanied by his secretary, Elmhurst. At that point in time, Tagore was 63 years old and Ocampo just 34 years, which lent an interesting esoteric dimension to her fascination with the poet. Tagore had christened Victoria as his ‘Bijoya’ since he met her in the twilight era of his life and would address her by this name in his letters and verbal communication. Ocampo very generously arranged for a small retreat in a magnificent splendid villa located on the banks of River Plate in San Isidro with the enchanting view of the river and in a verdant landscape with lots of trees. This is a perfect setting for Tagore who is a lover and worshipper of nature and there is a wonderful scene where he starts admiring the flowers and trees on his arrival at the villa.

The background part of the movie is shot in black-and-white with a genteel, unrushed pace along with a wonderful blend of music composed by Tagore (known as Rabindrasangeet) and a few other soulful melodious tracks. The most poignant of the interplay of music and setting being the scene where the tragic news of Tagore’s demise is announced over the car radio while Ocampo is driving along the bayfront. She has her eyes moist with sorrow, stops her car and lights up a cigarette and contemplates her memories of friendship with Tagore against the backdrop of the vast ocean with the rapturous tunes of a ‘Rabindrasangeet’ being played in the background titled ‘Amar Hrid Majhare…’, which roughly meant: ‘Shall keep you in my heart forever, I shall leave you never…’ — and indeed she kept Tagore in her heart.

In the end, their relationship was mystical and spiritual and as Tagore himself defined in a letter to Ocampo, “this love between you and me is as simple as a song”. I am, however, of the opinion that the music of the film could have been much more eclectic and appealing given the wide repertoire of Tagore’s songs. For instance, there were dramatic scenes like the first highly anticipated meeting between Ocampo and Tagore where the heart-throbbing anxiety could have been better captured through a soul-stirring ‘Rabindrasangeet’.

Victor Banerjee in his role captures the very raison d’etre of the aging, sagacious poet very beautifully and strikingly. The personality of Tagore comes alive through his acting and his role really evokes the charisma of the poet-philosopher of India. Victor is the quintessential Bengali bhadralok (gentleman) actor with his charm, chivalry and elegance along with a deep tenor voice which lends a certain soothing gravitas. He speaks in this movie with his trademark crisp, clear and genteel English accent. Elenora Wexler played a very measured role with understated elegance and sophistication since there was the possibility of exuberance being a glamorous Socialite but her dialogues and expressions remain rather scripted. In my opinion, this lent a certain dignity to her role as a high society patron of arts and culture in Buenos Aires. Her dealing with emotional moments in life with regard to her bond with Tagore was nuanced like hearing the death of her hero.

The film derives its name from a letter Ocampo sent to Tagore’s son after his death where she just wrote, “I am thinking of him”, which again reinforces this moderate style of communication.

While the audience is indulged with all the romantic richness of the Tagore-Ocampo friendship, the foreground is a more prosaic tale of an Argentine teacher, Felix, played by actor Hector Bordoni, travelling to Shantiniketan in India in his quest for answers to a dysfunctional educational system. Shantiniketan was the abode of Tagore and his experimental educational institution which attempted to forge a new sensitive and moral human being deeply rooted in the nature and traditions of India.

Felix is disoriented by the suicide of one of his school students and decides to embark on a personalised journey to find meaning and understanding of education and life. His interest in Tagore is triggered by reading a book on Tagore and his sojourn in San Isidro during his meeting with Ocampo. On his arrival at Shantiniketan, Felix encounters two very competent and smart individuals — Kamali and Prakash — both residents of Shantiniketan and active practitioners of Tagorean ideals and philosophy. In the movie, Felix learns a lot about Tagore’s metaphysics and philosophy through his interactions with both of them.

The roles of Kamali are played by Raima Sen and that of Prakash by Bratin Bandhopadhyay. With Kamali, Felix strikes up a friendship which assists him in his personal journey and in absorbing Tagore’s ideals of life and education. Kamali cajoles Felix to abandon fear and live life ‘full size’ dropping his old inhibitions and fear. There are scenes in the movie where Felix is healed through rituals facilitated by both Kamali and Prakash.

The contemporary part has a certain subtlety and sophistication of emotions at play by Raima Sen, who really strikes out in this section. In her part, she brings forth her sophisticated yet assertive Bengali style while speaking her dialogues. Having watched several of her films, I find this blend interesting. Finally, the movie is a worthwhile watch and an enriching rendition of a glorious episode in the lives of two passionate and aesthetic individuals.

The author is an entrepreneur and independent researcher based in Bengaluru and holds a PhD in Management Studies from Cass Business School, London. He is an Anglosphere enthusiast and celebrates Indian cosmopolitanism. Views expressed are personal.

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Gangubai Kathiawadi keeps Netflix afloat in India, all eyes on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi

By now it is a commonly known fact that Netflix India is not performing well at all. Their recent attempts to pump up non-deserving films as their USP has fallen flat on its face. The fact is, Netflix India is currently floating on the success of one film alone, and that’s Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi.

Since its premiere on Netflix on April 26, 2022, Gangubai Kathiawadi has become the number one non-English film on Netflix globally. The film has been watched for more than fourteen million hours and has featured in the Top 10 in Films in 25 countries across the world, including Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and UAE.

Pakistan has embraced Gangubai Kathiawadi like no other Indian film in recent memory. Gangubai Kathiawadi is now Netflix’s No.1 non-English film across the world.

“In many countries across the world, and that includes Pakistan and the Gulf countries, Gangubai Kathiawadi has made a deep impact. I receive messages from parts of the world that I didn’t know existed on the map,” divulges Bhansali.

Talking about how the film has been appreciated on Netflix, Sanjay Leela Bhansali said, “Gangubai Kathiawadi is a special film that I hold very close to my heart. The audience loved it when it was released in theaters and now, with Netflix, we are delighted to see how wide the film has been able to reach, finding new audiences. Its success on Netflix reinforces that Gangubai’s story of fight for justice for women is truly universal." There are efforts to carry Gangubai’s story forward, especially for Netflix. Not only a sequel. There is also talk of a series based on Gangubai’s character and her exploits as a champion of sex workers.

The idea works well within the web series format, though at the moment Bhansali is way too preoccupied with his next project Heeramandi to give the Gangubai series a serious thought. Bhansali remembers how opposed his team was to the idea of a film on a female gangster. “At the brainstorming sessions, they all said, ‘No no, do this later. Do something else now.’ They wanted to keep me off Gangubai somehow by distracting me. But I was adamant. I wanted this to be my next film after Padmaavat. This is how it always is for me: I go through a churning when I finish a project. But somehow I always know what I want to do next. I was fixated on Gangubai for years now. I wanted to tell her story after Padmaavat, not before not after.”

Zeroing in on Alia Bhatt for the title role was not easy. Sanjay Bhansali was under pressure to sign Deepika Padukone for the role. But after three films with Deepika in a row, it was time for a break. Visionary that he is, how could Bhansali think of the petite elite, Alia Bhatt as a gangster? “I owed her a film. After Insha Allah (the proposed love story with Salman Khan) was shut down, I had decided to cast her in another film. At that time I didn’t know I’d be doing Gangubai next.I knew she had in her. It’s the eyes. And the power to scream through her silences. I have to admit Alia surrendered completely to my direction. Throughout the film, she remained thoroughly committed to her character and did not bring her moods, personal life or any tantrums to the sets. I’d say she is the most professional actress I’ve worked with.” So is Alia going to be in Bhansali’s next?

 

 

 

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“I am not saying anything right now. For now, it’s Heeramandi for Netflix all the way. We’ve just completed the casting and pre-production is almost complete. We start shooting from the end of the month,” says Bhansali.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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