Box office: 'Khoobsurat' rakes in Rs 11.5 crore

Both 'Daawat-e-Ishq' and 'Khoobsurat' have not lived up to industry expectations

In its first weekend, Daawat-e-Ishq has collected Rs 13.75 crore while Khoobsurat's collections stand at Rs 11.5 crore. 

Trade analyst Rajesh Thadani says that the collection of the former was higher than that of Khoobsurat in the first two days. `It also had an advantage in that it had a higher screen count. But Khoobsurat saw a jump in its collection on Sunday.'' Vishal Anand of Fun Cinemas says that the food yatra that Daawat-e-Ishq's cast went on has helped the film fare better.

Trade analysts are hoping that both films will do better in the coming week. Trade analyst Amod Mehra says, `Both films received a cold response. On Saturday, Khoobsurat clocked good numbers, but yes, it's still less than what was expected.`

Meanwhile...
It may be pointed out that Khoobsurat has released across 47 screens in Pakistan while Daawat-e-Ishq has only bagged 27 screens in the neighbouring country. There is also buzz that Khoobsurat, which stars Pakistani actor Fawad Khan opposite Sonam Kapoor, has garnered the ninth highest opening ever in Pakistan.

Pakistani distributor Amjad Rashid says, `Here the opening day collection of Khoobusurat was over Rs 10 million while Daawat-e-Ishq has collected Rs 4 million.'' As per trade sources, Khoobsurat's collection in Pakistan stands at around Rs 2.45 crore (Pakistani rupees).By Santa Banta News Network

Deepika Padukone: Bollywood star in titillation row with Times of India

Actor says she feels violated and is standing up for women, but Times of India accuses her of hypocrisy

Deepika Padukone at a promotional event in Mumbai for the film Happy New Year. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

One of India’s best-known actors has been accused of hypocrisy after she criticised the country’s best-selling English-language newspaper for drawing attention to her cleavage.

The Times of India tweeted a link to a video clip showing the chest and neck of Deepika Padukone, 28, shot from a high angle apparently by a press cameraman, to the 75,000 followers of its entertainment account. The tweet read: “OMG! Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show”. The video, reported to be a year old, was also posted on the newspaper’s entertainment site.

Supposedly India's 'LEADING' newspaper and this is 'NEWS'!!?? pic.twitter.com/D3wiVVXuyM

— Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) September 14, 2014

Padukone responded by tweeting to her own 7.5m followers: “YES! I am a woman. I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!??”

YES!I am a Woman.I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!??

— Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) September 14, 2014

The newspaper and Padukone have since traded accusations on social media, on television and in print. “I felt violated as a woman,” the former model told Barkha Dutt, one of India’s few leading female journalists on television.

The dispute took another turn on Monday when the Times of India published a response to a statement posted by Padukone on her Facebook page at the weekend arguing that the media should distinguish between her “reel” – cinematic – and “real” personalities.

“Deepika, we accept your reel vs real argument, but what about all the times, and there have been many, when you have flaunted your body off screen – while dancing on stage, posing for magazine covers, or doing photo ops at movie promotional functions? What ‘role’ do you play there? So why the hypocrisy?” senior editor Priya Gupta said in the article. The newspaper also accused the actor of seeking to publicise her latest film.

Other Bollywood stars, male and female, have rushed to Padukone’s defence. “Well done taken a stand for all of us,” said Priyanka Chopra, another Bollywood A-lister, after Padukone first hit back at the newspaper.

Well done @deepikapadukone ! Taken a stand for all of us. Xoxo

— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) September 14, 2014

Shah Rukh Khan, who has played male leads in several recent films starring Padukone, said he and others did not “have the guts to do what she has done”.

The row has focused attention on ethics in India’s chaotic and highly competitive media. “There are pictures like this every day, particularly of foreign women in the press. The younger generation is changing but there are still very many in the Indian middle class who have traditional views,” said Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research in Delhi.

A series of high-profile incidents in India have raised deep concerns about violence against women in India. The representation of women in Bollywood films, particularly storylines featuring persistent lovers pursuing unwanted advances, has been cited as a contributory factor.

Senior politicians, police officials and others have frequently blamed rapes and other assaults on women’s dress and behaviour. Recently Narendra Modi, the newly elected prime minister, said the blame should lie with the young men responsible for violence and harassment, not their victims.

“I want to ask parents: when your daughter turns 10 or 12 years old, you ask ‘where are you going? When will you return?’ [But] do the parents dare to ask their sons ‘where are you going? Who are your friends?’ After all, the rapist is also someone’s son,” Modi said.

Padukone has said her stance is “not about being a celebrity”. She told the news channel NDTV: “I am standing up for all the women and all the girls … in India and around the world.”

byy-

• The Guardian, Tuesday 23 September 2014

South Asian women step out of Bollywood, into serious dramatic roles

BY ALASTAIR SHARP

Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra of India speaks during the news conference for ''Mary Kom'' at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, September 4, 2014

She said the film resonates in part because of recent high profile cases of sexual violence that caught world attention.stepped beyond Bollywood song-and-dance to show South Asian women grappling with male-dominated sport, child marriage, and sexual desire of people with disability in their premieres at the Toronto Film Festival.

While the stories told vastly different tales, all sought to challenge their home audiences and provoke change. Two of them used established Indian stars to do it.

In "Mary Kom," former Miss World Priyanka Chopra plays the real-life title role of a five-time world champion boxer taking on bullying boys and then corrupt officials while also juggling marriage and motherhood.

Chopra, a Bollywood superstar, did not use a stunt double for the fight scenes and took on a punishing training regime to give her petite frame a more athletic form.

"It's a time where the country is coming together to say 'we protect our women and we give them rights' and the women are coming together and saying 'we're tough, we're strong, we're not going to take this sitting down'," she told Reuters.

The biopic was bankrolled in part by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a major Bollywood player, and has faced criticism in India for overly dramatizing the life of a national icon.

Meanwhile, first-time feature film director Afia Nathaniel struggled to find local financing for her film "Dukhtar" (Daughter), about a Pakistani woman fleeing a marriage her husband had arranged for their 10-year-old daughter.

After years in the funding wilderness, Norway's Sorfund came on board, helping the film garner additional backers.

"Our local film industry is in shambles and financiers want to see masala films with women wearing almost nothing dancing and gyrating on the screen," she said. "Masala films" refers to the mixing of genres in mainstream South Asian film.

Filming in a remote part of the disputed Kashmiri region had to be halted at one point under threat of a fatwa issued by a local religious authority.

For director Shonali Bose, an outburst from her cousin and the death of her teenage son inspired "Margarita, With A Straw," about a young woman with cerebral palsy who explores her budding sexuality in a film Bose expects will shock Indian viewers.

The film will have a wide domestic release but must first make it past censors who will screen female masturbation and lesbian sex scenes.

"I deliberately pushed the envelope with that because that is something which is so completely never talked about or expressed," she said in a interview in reference to a specific masturbation scene.

"You're not supposed to fulfill your own sexual needs. That's considered bad."

That the character is also disabled adds another layer, said leading actress and Bollywood star Kalki Koechlin.

"It's pushing borders, not just about disability but about the way we think in terms of community and caste in India and how we place people in different boxes quite conveniently."

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Ken Wills)source:CREDIT: REUTERS/MARK BLINCH

Movie review: Actor Ravi Teja's Power is botched up entertainment.

Director: KS Ravindra
Cast: Ravi Teja, Hansika Motwani, Brahmanadam, Regina Cassandra, Sampath Raj, Harish Uthaman, Mukesh Rishi, Posani Krishna Murali and Prakash Raj
Rating: 1

Ravi Teja

Writer-director KS Ravindra aka Bobby, who has earlier penned stories for Ravi Teja's successful films such as Don Seenu and Balupu, conveniently borrows from his own films and a few other popular ones to make Power, which by all standards is one of the worst films in the actor Ravi Teja's career.

Power has been made with the intention of offering audiences many films for the price of one ticket. People who come out after watching the film, will realise that they've watched films such as Gentleman, Vikramarkudu, Kick and Billa. But the irony is that the end product is not even half as good as the films it has been inspired from.

If in Don Seenu, Ravi's character aspired to become a don and eventually landed a job with a local don, he wishes to become a police officer in Power and achieves his goal by slipping into the shoes of his doppelganger, a corrupt police officer who meets with a fatal accident. At this juncture, you're also reminded of Vikramarkudu and Billa, which more or less have a similar storyline.

While in Kick, Ravi robs corrupt politicians and businessmen for the greater good, he turns a corrupt policeman for a similar reason. The makers perhaps felt this would leave audiences teary-eyed, but it was outright lame.

Also watch: Power trailer

Bobby also borrows from Shankar's Gentleman when he makes a mother sacrifice her life for her son. He throws in predictable twists too at regular intervals, but these really don't catch audience off guard. If you're an intelligent viewer, you can easily guess what's coming your way.

The excruciatingly painful dance sequence, which was supposed to evoke laughter, in the climax is lifted from Balupu.

Power is Ravi Teja's show all the way, but we are otherwise let down by some bad performances even with a talented cast of Sampath and Harish. Brahmanandam and Saptagiri, roped in to provide the laughs, entertain us barely for a few minutes.

Hansika and Regina hardly have any scope for performance. It's disheartening to see that these young and talented heroines are merely used to up the glamour quotient.

Power shows how lazy Telugu filmmakers who team up with stars have become. A lot of these star-studded films that are lavishly made on a high-budget don't work anymore because they follow an archaic style of filmmaking. There's no need to stop making commercial films, which is what the masses still prefer watching, but one should know how to make it differently.

Power is botched up entertainment.source.HT.

Movie review by Rashid Irani: Even Bruce Willis, John Cusack can't save The Prince.Rashid Irani, Hindustan Times   September 13, 2014

Film: The Prince
Direction: Brian A Miller
Actors: Jason Patric, Jessica Lowndes
Rating: 1/5

Their names may be above the title but don’t let that fool you. Saddled with insignificant supporting roles, Bruce Willis and John Cusack barely tap into their considerable talents preferring instead to just pocket their (presumably hefty) pay cheques. The real star (if he can be called that) of this kidnap thriller is Jason Patric.

An expressionless wonder, he portrays a distraught dad who high tails it to New Orleans to search for his missing daughter (Gia Mantegna, comatose). His mission puts him at cross-purposes with a drug lord, a vengeance-seeking mobster (Willis) and a battalion of brutes.

The shootouts and chases are staged so ineptly that it’s difficult to figure out who’s doing what to whom and why. Worst of all, not a single law enforcement officer can be glimpsed as the body count rises and public property is wantonly destroyed.

It’s almost as if the city’s police force has gone on vacation. Incidentally, cuss words have been bleeped from practically every sentence. Why not bleep out the dire dialogue entirely? That may at least have made The Prince more fun to watch.source HT.