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Tag: Raabta

  • ADK Fortune produces short film ‘Raabta’

    ADK Fortune produces short film ‘Raabta’

    Coronavirus is here to stay and has changed and impacted the world in ways in more ways than one.  All communication for most part of this year has been focused on this virus. From saluting corona warriors, to public service messages urging people to wear masks and maintaining social distance.

    ADK Fortune, a WPP company and part of Wunderman Thompson South Asia Group, felt it was now time to spread a message of hope and how corona patients had actually found friends who stood by them.

    With cases increasing by the day, it was their belief that they needed to create not just an advertisement – but a short film that actually took on this gloomy picture and turned it around.

    And thus, was born a completely pro-bono effort between ADK Fortune and director Gautam Vaze at Full Circle Productions.

    Speaking about the core idea, Nakul Sharma, VP and ECD, ADK Fortune, said, “The creative script took off when we realised that a simple game of tambola went beyond love for the game and took on a deeper meaning of care, love and support. We are overwhelmed by the response the film has received. The messages across age groups and from different parts of the country ( not to mention NRIs who have sent it back to their friends and family in India) just proves that what started out as just a simple idea to bring cheer and positivity has already touched hundred thousands of people.”

    The production house and the director managed to coordinate a remote shoot between two locations and three actors namely national award-winning actor Arundhati Nag and theatre stalwart Neena Kulkarni along with Aayushi Lahir whose acting prowess made this film even more powerful.  

  • No takers for films sans merit or promotion

    MUMBAI: The drought continues despite a number of new films releasing. The thing is, the films released in last three weeks lacked in face value and promotion. Cinema halls continued with their suicidal approach of sticking to the high admission rates. It does not impact the merit and face value of a film.

    What is happening is that, films have been opening but there are no takers.

    Agreed, a lot of these films have no selling point. But, the worst sufferer was Raabta, a T Series presentation, which was a well promoted film and had a rather high price tag. Sadly, there was no audience at some venue even for its opening show. The film being mediocre or bad comes later when people have seen it and go away with a bad opinion about it.

    Last week saw three more releases in Bank Chor, Phullu, G Kutta Se. While, Phullu, a film on social awareness about women’s issue and, Ge Kutta Se, a gory film about honour killing, were not expected to work commercially, Bank Chor carried some promise, having been released by Yash Raj Films’ alternate banner, Y Films. The problem was, the film had hit the cinema halls out of the blue. It was not afforded even the symbolic promotion to create awareness. Probably because, Y Films was only releasing the film and was not its producer. The outcome has proved to be disastrous.

    *Bank Chor, an attempted comedy fell flat lacking in comedy, face value and promotion. The film had a poor opening with Rs 1.44 crore on day one, could not add much on Saturday collecting Rs 1.66 crore but registered a drop on Sunday with TV channels offering live Badminton, hockey and cricket tournaments where in all three events Indian teams had a lot at stake. The film collected Rs 4.34 crore for its opening weekend.

    *G Kutta Se, a film on honour killing and Phullu, a film about woman’s problem remain also ran.

    *Raabta, a T Series and Dinesh Vijan joint venture, has a poor first week despite good pre-release promotion. Counting on just three characters to carry a poorly written film through, it managed to collect Rs 20.5 crore in its first week.

    *Behen Hogi Teri ended its first week with Rs 2.05 crore.

    *Sachin: A Billion Dreams just about comes to the end of its run as the film adds a mere Rs 1.05 crore in its third week taking its three week tally to Rs 40.9 crore.

    *Hindi Medium continues to hold its own against all odds to add Rs 5.8 crore in its fourth week to take its four week total to Rs 0.6 billion.

    *Baahubali: The Conclusion (Dubbed) has collected about Rs 2.4 crore in its seventh week taking its seven week total to Rs 4.992.

  • Raabta…..Intolerable

    Reincarnation has worked when it is made around emotional bonds. There have been some memorable films made on reincarnation and there have been some rejected as utter thrash. There are writers in English language like Brian Weiss and Dr Ian Stevenson among others who specialize on reincarnation cases. And, some recent filmmakers have even been inspired by their work weather it suits Indian beliefs or not.

    While the reincarnation films that worked are Madhumati, Mahal, Milan, Neel Kamal, Karan Arjun, there are also those which did not, like Kudrat, Mehbooba, Karz (was okay in Bombay Circuit.).

    Raabta is a reincarnation story which, in this case, is incidental. Because, as the film proceeds, you do think that the same story could have been told even without the reincarnation angle. But, then, the reincarnation theme only gives the luxury of stretching the story to look like a complete screenplay. Also, what is sad is that, instead of keeping the film simple, the makers try to make the film spectacular when they deal with the previous birth and take it to a medieval period. It would make more sense to keep it more identifiable with the audience.

    The character of Sushant Singh Rajput is a compulsive flirt. He is a charmer and ethics or morals are not for him. He is in Belgium where he comes across with the character of Kriti Sanon.

    A romance grows between Rajput and Kriti. Love stories are all same but, what usually works is the chemistry between the leads coupled with melodious music. Here, sadly, that chemistry is not given time to build.

    Love stories need a hurdle in some sort of a villain. Here, the villain is from Sushant and Kirti’s previous birth, a thousand years ago. It was a love story that turned into a love triangle which ended with a tragedy.

    Now, Sushant, Kriti are reincarnated and so is the villain from previous birth, played by Jim Sarbh.

    Jim Sarbh is a liquor baron, who commutes in a personal helicopter and thinks he own all of Europe. There is a belief in filmmaking that to make your hero look like a hero, you need to make your villain strong. In this film, Sushant humiliates and makes fun of Jim soon as they come face to face so the villain’s character becomes a caricature.

    The film passes its first half with only Sushant and Kriti on screen with the only relief being European locations. That makes the first half boring. And, if one thought the first half was boring, the second half when the film goes into flashback of a thousand years ago, it is sheer torture. The fact that the villain, Jim, enters the proceedings adds to the tedium.

    Raabta is a poorly conceived film with equally poor execution. The music is poor and the one popular number, Mera tujhse….., filmed on Deepika and does not help either. The cinematography is competent making for pleasant viewing in the first half while the medieval era camouflaged in darkness is taxing. Editing is poor.

    Counting on just three actors, Rajput, Sanon and Sarbh, is getting rather ambitious since none of the three commands a draw or are known for their histrionics. They fail to carry the film through.

    Raabta is poor in all respects with box office prospects being poor.

    Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Homi Adajania, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar.
    Director: Dinesh Vijan.
    Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti Sanon, Jim Sarbh.

  • Amazon Prime to premier T-Series new films

    Amazon Prime to premier T-Series new films

    MUMBAI: Amazon’s intent is very clear: amass content, which gives it an unassailable advantage for its OTT service Amazon Prime Video India. With a war chest of $5 billion, it can well afford to. Cricket and movies is what it is focusing on.

    Earlier this week, it announced that it had been licensed to stream the entire upcoming Dharma Productions film roster on its Prime Video service. And, adding to its content, catalogue Amazon has announced that it has sealed a deal with leading music label and film studio the Bhushan Kumar-owned T-Series.

    Under this, Amazon will be the exclusive subscription streaming home for T-Series’ upcoming 17 film strong slate.  On it, feature films like the Anubhav Sinha-directed Tum Bin 2, the Sonakshi Sinha-starrer Noor, Chef, starring Saif Ali Khan, Raabta starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon, the Hansal Mehta directed, Simran, starring Kangana Ranaut, the Saket Chaudhary directed Hindi Medium, starring Irrfan Khan and Pakistani beauty, Saba Qamar, the Vishal Pandya directed, Wajah Tum Ho, Yaariyan 2, Hate Story 4 and other  future big budget features with top-of-the-line actors and top directors like Abhinay Deo and Luv Ranjan.

    A release states that the films will be seen first on Prime Video even before the TV premier.

     “T-Series is one of the leaders in the Indian entertainment industry.  As a result of this partnership, Amazon Prime members will soon enjoy a wide variety of some of the best Bollywood movies in the country, all within a few weeks of their theatrical release,” said Amazon Video India director & country head Nitesh Kripalani. “We are committed to adding value for Prime members and are excited to give them exclusive access to premium entertainment they will love.  We will continue to add more content in the coming months.”  

    Added T-Series chairman & managing director Bhushan Kumar: “T-Series has always strives to be ahead of the curve in the digital content distribution space, and this exclusive alliance for our future under-production films with Amazon is another step in that direction. Subscription services are being well-received by the consumers and hold tremendous potential in India. We hope to see higher traction and growth in this mode of content distribution. This alliance will bring in greater synergies for both, Amazon and  T-Series, and we wish great success to Amazon Prime Video.”

    ALSO READ:

    Amazon Prime, Dharma enter licensing deal

  • Amazon Prime to premier T-Series new films

    Amazon Prime to premier T-Series new films

    MUMBAI: Amazon’s intent is very clear: amass content, which gives it an unassailable advantage for its OTT service Amazon Prime Video India. With a war chest of $5 billion, it can well afford to. Cricket and movies is what it is focusing on.

    Earlier this week, it announced that it had been licensed to stream the entire upcoming Dharma Productions film roster on its Prime Video service. And, adding to its content, catalogue Amazon has announced that it has sealed a deal with leading music label and film studio the Bhushan Kumar-owned T-Series.

    Under this, Amazon will be the exclusive subscription streaming home for T-Series’ upcoming 17 film strong slate.  On it, feature films like the Anubhav Sinha-directed Tum Bin 2, the Sonakshi Sinha-starrer Noor, Chef, starring Saif Ali Khan, Raabta starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon, the Hansal Mehta directed, Simran, starring Kangana Ranaut, the Saket Chaudhary directed Hindi Medium, starring Irrfan Khan and Pakistani beauty, Saba Qamar, the Vishal Pandya directed, Wajah Tum Ho, Yaariyan 2, Hate Story 4 and other  future big budget features with top-of-the-line actors and top directors like Abhinay Deo and Luv Ranjan.

    A release states that the films will be seen first on Prime Video even before the TV premier.

     “T-Series is one of the leaders in the Indian entertainment industry.  As a result of this partnership, Amazon Prime members will soon enjoy a wide variety of some of the best Bollywood movies in the country, all within a few weeks of their theatrical release,” said Amazon Video India director & country head Nitesh Kripalani. “We are committed to adding value for Prime members and are excited to give them exclusive access to premium entertainment they will love.  We will continue to add more content in the coming months.”  

    Added T-Series chairman & managing director Bhushan Kumar: “T-Series has always strives to be ahead of the curve in the digital content distribution space, and this exclusive alliance for our future under-production films with Amazon is another step in that direction. Subscription services are being well-received by the consumers and hold tremendous potential in India. We hope to see higher traction and growth in this mode of content distribution. This alliance will bring in greater synergies for both, Amazon and  T-Series, and we wish great success to Amazon Prime Video.”

    ALSO READ:

    Amazon Prime, Dharma enter licensing deal