Will Star Prices Fall And Other Questions…

If you have been keeping a watch on the release dates of films, you would have noticed that for the last several months, the release date for Manmarziyan (Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar) has been published as September 23, 2016. Except that we are already at the end of August and the stalled film, due to undergo a change of leadership, hasn’t restarted yet. And if trade sources are right, as they usually are, it’s not going to either.

The stalling of a film because the director and producer don’t see eye to eye over the canned portions of the film is not new, the history of films cites many such cases. But in the last few years, it has happened much less, making Manmarziyan something of a rarity. Evidently, the problem here is that while the director Sameer Sharma (now ousted) favoured an underplayed approach, the writer and producer Aanand L. Rai wished for a larger-than-life performance given it was set in Punjab and as we all know, Punjabis in Hindi films rock the OTT. 


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And on the subject of OTT, I don’t understand why hosts on TV shows need to resort to it to get eyeballs. The Kapil Sharma Show is a prime example. The host, of course, does his OTT best by flirting (and occasionally mock marrying) with almost every girl who comes on the show. But it’s the guests who display their OTT quotient more. Not that there is anything wrong with being wildly amused but it often seems as if the guests come prepared to react by being in splits, rocking and rolling at everything that happens. It’s almost like this being a comedy show they are expected to laugh and so, they do whether it actually tickles their funny bone or not. The sole exception to this has been Ranbir Kapoor, who, at his underplaying best, is content to smile charmingly.


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Then there is Jacqueline Fernandez on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. Jacqueline had a long barren spell before Salman and Kick rescued her, and now seems determined to make the most of her time in the sun. On the show she is beyond livewire, clapping her hands in glee at every small thing that happens, squealing in delight and generally taking attention away from the fact that she has very little to say because she can’t express herself in the language of the show and she’s not a trained dancer either. Watch Shilpa Shetty on another dance show and you will understand the difference between judging and commenting.

Getting back to trade matters, a couple of weeks ago, I had written about Disney UTV shutting their Hindi film production department and now comes the news that Balaji Motion Pictures will be doing so too or at least paring down their slate in the wake of the losses their productions have suffered. The latest is A Flying Jatt, which really wasn’t a surprise considering that the film is so FX heavy and simultaneously so light on content. Hopefully, this is the ‘correction’ the trade has been waiting for and if everyone (read lead actors) takes a pay cut, the industry will not just survive but could be back to the golden days of yore.

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