It’s a million dollar question. Is Anupam Kher in or out of Sawal Dus Crore Ka (SDCK)? With both Kher and Zee TV singing different tunes, there’s no way one can as yet ‘freeze’ eit-her ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to that. Going by recent media reports, one gets the impression that Kher has been booted out […]
SO YOU thought only cricket matches could be fixed? Here in Mumbai, even the box office collections of newly released films can be fixed. They call it “ticket phadna”. An insecure star, who is sometimes also the film’s producer, arranges to block-book the first week’s shows and, hey presto, the “House Full” boards go up. […]
FOR ALL those die-hard Sholay fans, there is some good news. A sequel to sholay titled Sholay 2000 is on it way and that too by the makers of the original Sholay film. It has been 25 years since Sholay stole its way into the hearts of millions of Indians and turned out to be […]
He is at it again. The self-appointed guardian of morality in Maharashtra Minister for Cultural Affairs has instructed the Stage performance Scrutiny Board to censor each and every word that goes into making a song especially rock music. It was only last week, that Pramod Navalkar rocked the rock world when he decided to “strictly […]
MUMBAI, April 11. “It is not me, just one Lata Mangeshkar saying it, many people bemoan the deterioration in the quality of music and lyrics. I feel this too (deterioration) will change, may be for the better and may be the glorious period of music, well written” says well-known singer Lata Mangeshkar. However, the legendary […]
“CAN THE NEW VIDEO MAGAZINES SURVIVE IN THE CUTTHROAT MARKET? A SPECIAL REPORT” Charles Darwin may well have been talking about the future of the video magazines when he propounded the theory of survival of the fittest. Indeed, survival of the fittest will be the name of the game in the video magazine market, which […]
IS FORMER editor and flamboyant media personality Pritish Nandy a blackmailer? Does he arm-twist institutions into sponsoring his programmes that appear on various channels? The Industrial Development Bank of India’s sole advertising agency, Adfactor, certainly seems to think so. The agency has lashed out at the “dirty blackmailing tactics” of Mr. Nandy and senior officials […]
“Computer animation is the new rage in fields ranging from advertising to hairstyling” Switch on your TV set in time for the nine o’clock news. And as aggressive strains of music seep into your offended ears, you will see a globe hurtling through space almost as if it wished to invade your living room. Just […]
FRAMED A new breed of ad filmmakers hits the screen It is a fact almost universally acknowledged that the advertisements that are flashed on our TV screens are invariably more entertaining than the programmes that follow. Entire families have been known to stare spellbound at the small screen as a young girl emerges from her […]
OLD WINE: SRK who plays Amitabh’s role is up against the venom of nostalgia Meenakshi Sinha and Ketan Tanna trace the rupee and other variables from the first Don to the second Every generation recounts the past with an unmistakable condescension — “simpler timesâ€. And so it must be said about the Technicolour age […]
The film industry is today finally professional. The management system is replacing what was once the vocation of temperamental men and women, report Meena Iyer and Ketan Tanna In simpler times, in the eighties and the nineties, when some actors used to sign up for more than 40 films a year, producer Prakash Mehra, in […]
JAILHOUSE ROCK These fans donate their Elvis memorabilia as an emotional corpus In this series we cover unusual groups formed by a common passion. This week, Ketan Tanna profiles the Elvis Presley fan club of Mumbai Acruelty of time, or maybe culture, is that Himesh Reshammiya is more popular in India today than Elvis Presley. […]
IN CAMERA Members of passionforcinema.com bond over the potent compound of cinema and industry gossip In this Saturday series, we cover unusual groups. This week, Ketan Tanna meets bloggers who are mad about movies RGV is a favourite subject of discussion. They wonder what he will be up to next On September 18, when […]
Ketan Tanna sifts through a cardboard box which contain the thoughts and fears of Parveen Babi Three years after she died, Parveen Wali Mohammad Khan Babi’s sunlit Juhu penthouse finally got a tenant. Despite Mumbai’s housing crisis and the cheap rent, there were few takers for the flat because the actress had died here […]
CLASSIC MOMENTS BRM members are planning a film appreciation school and a museum in the director’s memory In this series, we cover unusual groups. Ketan Tanna, this week, profiles a unique club called Bimal Roy Memorial Needless to say, all Bimal Roy fans will not fit into a flat, especially a flat in Mumbai. […]