‘Aladin‘ has failed at the box office while ‘London Dreams‘ too is trying to keep its head above water. So what went wrong with these mega budget films that were touted to be big money spinners before their release?

The dismal show of ALADIN makes one wonder yet again if Hindi filmgoers really have an appetite for VFX heavy films? First ‘Love Story 2050′, then ‘Drona’ and now ‘Aladin’-A terrible box office showing of such films make the fact crystal clear that audiences are just not inclined to step into theatres to even give a chance to films belonging to fantasy genre. There is something called word-of-mouth that comes into play in making a film hit or a flop. But how can one explain the fate of a movie like ‘Aladin’ when audiences were not even willing to watch the film on the first day and then spread any word-of-mouth?

Let’s look at ‘London Dreams’ now. While lack of popular music is said to be a major factor behind the slow opening of the film, it is not really a point to be universally agreed upon. Something like this reflects in the Friday opening, not subsequent days. The audiences chose to keep a distance from the movie after an uneven opening weekend. Eventually, there wasn’t much addition to the weekend collection with the first week billing coming close to 23 crores- a low total for a film which is a costly affair.

If one digs deep down, another factor that comes to mind is the overdose factor. Frankly, a consumer can’t be expected to shell out bucks practically every week. ‘Wake Up Sid’, ‘Do Knot Disturb’, ‘Blue’, ‘All The Best’ -How many films can audiences step in week after week? There was bound to be one film that would eventually get impacted and that unfortunately happened to be ‘London Dreams’. Same set of audiences who took a breather last week were more than happy to give a dekko at Ranbir’s ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani‘ after they were out of theatre action three weeks after the release of ‘Blue’ and ‘All The Best’.

-Sampurn Media

Well, before a month we had ‘BLUE’ (Hindi film) fever in town and now it’s all about Tollywood’s ‘ORANGE’ starring Ram Charan Teja and Genelia D’Souza in lead roles. This film is directed by Telugu film industry’s leading filmmaker ‘Bommarillu’ fame Bhaskar.

It’s worth mentioning that he’s a close friend of ‘Jeyam’ Raja as both keep sharing about their projects before commencing it. Recently, official confirmations were made about ‘Jeyam’ Raja directing Vijay’s 51st film to be produced by V. Ravichandran of Aascar Films.

But the latest buzz is that the filmmaker has shown keen interest over remaking ‘Orange’ which happens to be a breezy romantic entertainer. Since, Vijay’s previous films and upcoming projects ‘Vettaikaran’ and ‘Sura’ are reported to be action-packed drama; the actor has been planning to switch onto a different genre.

-R. Richard Mahesh/ Sampurn Media

This is a story that Akshay Kumar really doesn’t want to be told. But in times when cameras arrive at the place of charity before the star’s charitable act, the star’s quiet act of generosity is somewhat touching.

A few days after the release of Blue the film’s director who openly hero-worships Akshay Kumar, was traveling with the star when suddenly Akshay stopped the car, pulled out a wads of thick currency notes and gently handed it over to Tony who was understandably stunned.

“This is for all the spot boys in Blue. Please divide it among them as a Diwali bonus. Blue couldn’t have happened without them,” Akshay told Tony.

Says the director, “It was 2.5 lakh rupees and I quietly distributed it among the 18 spotboys of Blue. I kept quiet about it because Akshay asked me to. But now when you ask about it, I’ve to admit such largesse is rare in our film industry.”

In a way the director is right. Who pulls out wads of currency notes in this day and age of credit cards?

Says Tony, “You’ve to look at it from the point of view of the spot boys who are the most neglected breed in Bollywood. No one looks their way let alone reward their hard work. You had to see the glint in their eyes when they received Akshay’s gift. I’ve now become a bigger fan of Akshay Kumar.”

Akshay now intends to hold a special screening of Blue for all the family and friends of the spot boys.

-Sampurn Media

When Sanjay and Zarine Khan watched their son Zayed do those never-before heart-in-the-mouth motorcycle stunts in Blue they threw a royal fit.

Ever since his near-fatal fire accident in 1989 in Mysore during the shooting of the serial The Sword Of Tipu Sultan during which Sanjay Khan suffered extensive burns and almost lost his life, both he and his wife are paranoid about shooting mishaps.

When their only son Zayed decided to become a movie actor Sanjay and Zarine’s first and only pre-condition was, no dangerous stunts.

Says Zayed, “It was almost like a holy diktat, not to perform anything that would potentially be harmful to me.”

Until Blue where on the script level itself Zayed could see that his two lengthy bike chase sequences on the Ducati 999 were potentially more lethal than anything the average action hero performs.

Says Zayed, “I had two options. Either say no to the most exciting role I had been offered so far. Or hide the truth from my parents.”

Zayed chose the latter option. And went on to do the most explosive mo’bike stunts with his heart in his mouth. “Not because I was scared but what would my parents think and say when they saw what I had done.”

When Sanjay and Zarine Khan saw Blue their reaction was worse than what Zayed had anticipated.

Zayed’s parents were distraught. Their horror mounted as the couple saw their son whiz past the most dangerous check posts ever created for a stunt actor.

Says Zayed, “When I saw their reaction I had to do some quick thinking or else my parents would have truly freaked out and probably ordered me to give up movies. My helmet, which covered my face through most of the bike racing, saved me. I told them it was a body-double doing those stunts.”

The fact is Zayed did most of the action scenes. “Am I some kind of a sissy to let a stuntman do them? No way! I had accepted the role only so I could do these stunts. Except the moment when my bike jumps on to a train all the other stunts are mine. And that train stunt I didn’t do because my action director said he wanted me to be alive to complete the film.”

After reading this Zayed hopes his parents would accept the truth. “If you are an actor you gotta do it all. One can be wounded even while standing under a roof. Jo hona hoga woh hoga.”

-Sampurn Media

By Subhash K Jha

When Iranian cinematography legend Amir Mokri saw Blue on Oct 9 on the ‘Clint Eastwood Recording Sound Stage No 6’ at the Warner Brothers Studios in Los Angeles, director Anthony(Tony) D’Souza, a huge self-confessed and unabashed fan of Mokri’s work played a little game with Mokri.

Tony quietly let his precious film unfold for his favorite cinematographer and waited for him to recognize the sequence that Tony had shot as per instruction from Mokri in LA. Of course Mokri immediately recognized the sequence whose shots were copied from Bad Boys 2 which Mokri had photographed.

Says Tony, “Of course Amir recognized the shots immediately, I had seen the way actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence zigzagged through windows and doors for a particular sequence in Bad Boys 2. I wanted to use those shots for a sequence between Sanjay Sir (Dutt) and Lara Dutta in Blue. I got in touch with Mokri and he instructed me and my cameraman on phone and email on how to go about doing the shots in a way that the camera seems to be hurling at the same speed as the characters. I think we got it right. Amir seemed to think so.”

Though Tony isn’t saying it, Mokri liked Blue enough to now to be a part of Tony’s next film, the aerial actioner with Akshay Kumar and John Abraham.

Though Tony isn’t telling, the news is Mokri would do the camerawork for that film.

-Sampurn Media

Washington, February 6 (ANI): Blue colour boosts the brain’s ability to think creatively, and red to notice detail.

Well, these are the findings of a new University of British Columbia study, which was aimed at determining which of the two colours most improves the brain’s performance and receptivity to advertising.

The study showed that both colours could improve the brain’s performance and receptivity to ads, depending upon the nature of the task or message.

Those behind the study say that advertisers and interior designers may find their findings interesting.

“Previous research linked blue and red to enhanced cognitive performance, but disagreed on which provides the greatest boost. It really depends on the nature of the task,” says Juliet Zhu of UBC’s Sauder School of Business, author of the study which will appear in the journal Science Express.

For their study, the researchers tracked over 600 participants’ performance on six cognitive tasks between 2007 and 2008, which required either detail-orientation or creativity.

The team revealed that most of the experiments were conducted on computers, with a screen that was red, blue or white.

The researchers noted that red colour boosted the participants’ performance on detail-oriented tasks, such as memory retrieval and proofreading, by as much as 31 per cent compared to blue.

Conversely, according to them, for creative tasks such as brainstorming, blue environmental cues prompted participants to produce twice as many creative outputs as when under the red colour condition.

Zhu says that the variances were caused by different unconscious motivations that red and blue activate, noting that colour influences cognition and behaviour through learned associations.

The researcher revealed that a series of fictional ads and product packages were used to during the study, with a view to exploring how colour impacts receptivity to consumer packaging and advertising.

The study showed that when the background colour was red, people formed more favourable evaluations of products when its ad featured specific product details as opposed to evocative, creative messaging.

However, when the background was blue, the opposite pattern of results emerged.

Similarly, people were more receptive to a new, fictional brand of toothpaste that focused on negative messages such as “cavity prevention” when the background colour was red, whereas people were more receptive to aspirational messages such as “tooth whitening” when the background colour was rendered in blue. (ANI)

Contrary to reports about the two stars not seeing eye to eye, Sanjay Dutt and Akshay Kumar got along like a house on fire when they came together after 14 years to shoot the underwater thriller “Blue”.

“The last time Akshay and I worked together was in ‘Amaanat’ in 1994. And now ‘Blue’. I can see the transformation in him from then to now. It’s been a long journey for him. And in many ways, I see a reflection of my own journey,” Sanjay told IANS.

During the two-month-long shooting schedule in Bangkok and Phuket for Anthony D’Souza’s directorial debut, the two actors bonded big time, exchanging notes in between complicated underwater sequences.

Rubbishing reports of fights with Akshay in Bangkok, Sanjay said: “Who’s spreading these rumours? Obviously some people can’t tolerate the fact that I get along with my co-stars. They want to see me fighting with my co-stars and directors. Sorry, I won’t oblige. Getting into fights with Akshay isn’t possible.

“I’m a guy who gets along with everybody. And anyone who knows me will vouch for this. Akshay is like a younger brother to me. He gives me so much respect it’s embarrassing to hear we’ve been fighting. And the way he has struggled from scratch to become a big star is exemplary,” Sanjay said.

“They also wrote that I was having a fight with director Tony in Bangkok. I was in the water most of the time while he was directing me. When do I get a chance to have a fight with anyone? If anyone is trying to spoil the party for me, let me tell these spoilsports they aren’t going to succeed. They aren’t going to be invited for my parties.”

Just one problem in this new pally scenario. The two wives – Maanyata and Twinkle Khanna – haven’t really met or hit it off with each other.

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt is on a signing spree and accepting new projects at a price he never commanded before – a staggering Rs.15 crores/150 million per film.

Even at his new price Sanjay is now booked till the end of 2010 for 28 assignments, so much so that director Rohit Jugraj will be able to start his bio-pic with the actor only in 2011.

The new rate is thanks to good friend and colleague Suniel Shetty, who generously hiked Sanjay’s price when he signed on the actor for a multi-film deal for his production house Popcorn Entertainment.

Dharam Oberoi, CEO of Sanjay Dutt Productions, confirmed it to IANS: “It is true Anna (Suniel) raised Baba’s (Sanjay) price in the market. Before that Baba was being taken for granted price-wise by all and sundry. Anna was adamant about Baba’s price and started a new precedent by paying him far above what Baba got from others.”

He added: “Suniel is one of his dearest friends and responsible for initiating the remuneration that you’ve quoted.”

Having completed “EMI” with Suniel, Sanjay has now signed another big project with his company that will feature the two actors as warring heroes locked in a dramatic conflict. The big-budgeted Sanjay-Suniel action drama is to go on the floors soon, all thanks to Sanjay who magically accommodated the new assignment into his schedule even if it meant working a little harder.

“Anything for Suniel is Baba’s motto,” said Oberoi. “Yes, Baba has accommodated a new assignment with Anna into his schedule at a time when he couldn’t afford to. It means he has to work harder.”

Suniel is co-producing “EMI” with Ekta Kapoor and the film is being directed by debutant Saurav Kabra.

Sanjay recently suffered a leg injury in the gym, but he left for Bangkok to do action scenes for director Anthony D’Souza’s “Blue” against doctors’ orders. He was advised by doctors to let the limb heal itself out.

“Baba can’t afford to delay any project. In fact, he was really concerned when he had to cancel a small portion of the dubbing for Anna’s ‘EMI’ on the day he injured his leg. While he was on the cycle something gave way in his leg and Baba was in acute pain. In his typical way, he tried to brush it off as no big deal. But then the pain got unbearable and it came to a point where he could barely walk.

“With his tight schedule and his typical attitude of bravado, Baba refused to take the injury seriously. But he was forced to undergo tests. It was revealed that there was severe swelling in his leg that would take quite some time to heal.”

Disregarding doctors’ diktats Sanjay zipped off to Bangkok to join the already-waiting cast of “Blue” even if the stunts slowed down the healing process of his legs.

“That’s Baba for you. Even when going underwater was potentially harmful to his already weak lungs he went 40 feet under for ‘Blue’ in the Bahamas. And now he’s doing stunts in Bangkok with his injured leg with Akshay Kumar.”