Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan in National Awards '07's race

Mumbai: As the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry gets ready to announce the winners of the National Awards for 2007, buzz is that two of Bollywood's biggest stars Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan are in the contention for the Best Actor Award.

While Shah Rukh Khan has been nominated for his role as hockey coach Kabir Khan in Chak De India, Aamir Khan is in competition for his restrained performance as Art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh in Taare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan is also said to be in the running for Best Film for Taare Zameen Par - having directed and produced the film. News is that Darsheel Safari is also being considered for the Best child actor award for his performance as the dyslexic Ishaan Awasthi in the same film.

Shah Rukh Khan's home production, Om Shanti Om has also been nominated for a National Award in the best feature film for wholesome entertainment category. Aamir Khan earlier won an award in this category for Lagaan which he produced in 2001.

However neither Shah Rukh nor Aamir has ever won a national award for Best Actor yet in their career.

Meanwhile I&B Minister Ambika Soni is likely to announce the National Awards next week and President Pratibha Patil is scheduled to handover the awards in Delhi in October this year.

Aamir wants to take on SRK at the Box Office

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

If Aamir Khan has his way this year end might see one of the biggest clashes in the history of Bollywood. It has been learnt that Aamir wants Raj Kumar Hirani directed 3 Idiots to release on the same days as Shahrukh Khan's My Name Is Khan. This will be the first time the two stars will clash at the Box Office on the same day.

This however has become a bone of contention between the Hirani and Aamir as the director wanted the movie to release by the year end and avoid any major clashes and have a free run. Aamir has gone for a vacation deliberately to delay the film which also stars Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi and Madhavan and is based on Chetan Bhagat's novel Five Point Someone.

Aamir and Hirani have had a long discussion on the issue and the perfectionist actor has given Hirani a free hand to decide on the release date. But the truth is Aamir will take the final call on the release date. Last Year Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini had released back to back and Aamir had won the battle. It seems like Aamir wants to take on SRK again and prove who is the real superstar of Bollywood.

WHILE KAMAL IS CLASS ORIENTED, RAJANIKANT IS MASS ORIENTED

K.S. RAVI KUMAR , the sought after director of the film Dasavathar starring Kamal Haasan in ten roles wiuth Asin, tells JYOTHI VENKATESH in an exclusive interview in chaste Tamil

K.S. Ravi Kumar is excited about the fact that he has made his debut as a director as far as Hindi films is concerned with the Kamal Haasan starrer Dasavathar, which is the Hindi dubbed version of the original Tamil-Telugu bilingual hit Dasavatharam. When K.S.Ravi Kumar who is a director of super duper hits in Chennai as far as Tamil film industry is concerned was in Mumbai for promotion of his film Dasavathar recently, he took time off to talk to me about himself and his film.

Ravi Kumar who is considered the David Dhawan of Tamil films does not mince words at all. “I will be lying if I were to declare pompously that I consider film making as a service from my side to art. You can never catch me making an off beat or an art film now at this stage of my career though when I had set point to make my debut in Tamil films around nineteen years ago with the film Puriyatha Puthir, I was naïve enough to make art films.”

It is very interesting to note that Ravi Kumar who has to his credit hit films starring Rajanikant like Muthu and Sivaji had actually started his career not as a film maker but as an exporter of Tamil films to Malaysia, thanks to the good offices of the late comedian Nagesh, who he say was his good family friend. “I started off by exporting films to Malaysia and hence till date I consider films as business and not an art.”

Till date Ravi Kumar has directed as many as 37 films in Tamil and Telugu including Dasavatharam. He had started his career after giving up his export business by joining as an assistant to directors like Vikraman, K. Rangarajan, Relangi Narasimha Rao and Ramarajan.

Considering the fact that Dasavatharam was made at a cost of Rs 45 crores and ended up collecting a whopping sum of Rs 68 crores when it was released in Tamil and Telugu a year back, Ravi says that even before the release of the Hindi dubbed version, the film has already proved to be a super duper hit for producer Ravi Chandran of Aascar Films.

Ravi confesses that he was overwhelmed when the doyen among the film directors -K. Balachander who had actually discovered Kamal Haasan way back in Tamil films as a leading man, landed at his house a day after Dasavatharam was released and garlanded him to express his happiness after he had watched the film.

Ravi Kumar admits that though today he would not even dream of making any film without a mega star, he had made his first ten films without any big star. The reason is that no big star was even ready to recognize him, forget about being ready to listen to his story narration. It was only after Nattammai which he had made with Sharath Kumar who was at that point of time not a big star as he is now, that big stars started asking him if he would like to make a film with them.

Ravi Kumar says that today when he is sought after by big stars like Rajanikant and Kamal Haasan, he is not ready at all to take a risk by casting new actors in his film. Before Dasavatharam, Ravi had directed R. Madhavan in Ethiri.

Talking about his experience having directed Kamal Haasan, Ravi adds. “We are blessed to have an actor like Kamal Haasan in Tamil films. He is not only just an actor but an all rounder. In fact it is Kamal who has written the script of Dasavatharam, besides having played ten different roles in the film. There were times when I used to take just one single shot in six different days for Dasavatharam because we had to go in for visual effects for almost 90% of the film. We had to go in for double action without C.G. Kamal Haasan almost did mono acting on the sets.”

Ravi adds that it was quite tough for him to direct a mammoth film like Dasavatharam because he had to concentrate not only on the dialogues and the script but also calculate each and every shot while directing Kamal Haasan, because he was essaying multiple roles, often pitting himself with the other characters that he himself was playing.

What difference did you find between directing Kamal and Rajanikant? I ask Ravi. Comes the reply, “Kamal is class whereas Rajanikant is mass oriented. Kamal knows all the technical aspects of making a film since he is also a director whereas Rajanikant who gives ideas to directors does not get involved in the technique of the film.

K.S. Ravi Kumar has also the practice of appearing in every film of his, though he confesses that he has no desire to take up acting as a full time job or play the lead like some Tamil directors. “I see my face every day in the mirror in the morning and hence I know that I am not cut out for acting. Besides the fact also remains that I am just not inclined to take up acting, though initially I had played character roles in nine films of mine. Nowadays I appear in a cameo role in every film I direct because my producers feel that I am lucky for my film if I do a cameo role. I have appeared in Dasavatharam too in a small role”.

Ravi Kumar is of the opinion that language is not a barrier for any director, whether he is directing a film in Tamil or Hindi. “Mani Ratnam does not know a single word in Hindi. Hasn’t Mani Ratnam churned out great films in Hindi? I am keen on directing films in Hindi too. Right now I have no time to think about directing Hindi films because I am busy with not one but three projects o mine in Tamil.

K.S. Ravi Kumar says that he works at the same pace like in the beginning and in general completes a film in 90 days though it took him nearly two years to complete Dasavatharam. -Sampurn Media

Bollywood movies fail to revive theatres in Pakistan

Lahore (PTI): Screening of several Bollywood movies in Pakistani theatres during the past two years has not brought spectators back to cinemas in droves, shattering dreams of the revival of the ailing film industry.

Some 25 Indian movies have been screened in Pakistani cinemas since 2006, when the classic 'Taj Mahal' was released after authorities eased restrictions on the import of Bollywood productions after a gap of over four decades.

'Singh is Kinng' is the only movie that has done relatively better business in Pakistan, exhibitors said.

After the closure of 1,300 of the 1,500 cinema halls across the country in recent times, the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association pressed the government to allow the screening of Indian movies, saying it was the only way to save the remaining 200 theatres.

The PFEA was of the view that Pakistanis are fond of Indian films and would rush to theatres to watch their favourite stars on the big screen. However, their assessment did not prove correct.

People in the business blame two major factors -– terrorism and piracy -– for negating their efforts to bring people back to cinema halls.

"I don’t go a cinema hall to see my own movies because of the deteriorating law and order situation," said Meera, a Pakistani actress who has appeared in two Indian movies.

Kamal Hassan excited about Dashavatar

Kamal Hassan’s much awaited Hindi version of his Tamil blockbuster Dasavatharam has finally hit the theatres after almost a year since the original released. This mega budget extravaganza now titled Dashavatar directed by KS Ravikumar has Kamal Hassan playing ten different characters, which is a record of sorts. Ghajini girl Asin Thottumkal is in a double role and Mallika Sherawat also plays a significant part in the film.


The film, which took three years to get completed was pegged at over Rs.100 crore and was shot in eight foreign locations which including America, England, Japan, Malaysia etc. In India, the film was shot in Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The advertisement budget alone went up to a stupendous Rs.6 crores.


Kamal Hassan tells us, “If I start telling about the film from where we actually began Dashavatar it will take 2 years to tell you the story ,that is because every day, every word mattered. We started with just 25 days for the first schedule of the film, which had no shooting, no acting. It was just for the make-up tests 25 days in the US. 20 days, 12 hours a day, and then 5 days of taking photographs.


“When we came back with the photographs, people started believing more in Dashavatar including the producer, the director and myself. Till date nobody outside of the unit has seen any of these photographs. To cut it short, to cut to the chase as we call it. If you want to get a glimpse of all the hard work we did, you will have to come and see it on the big screen.”

HINDI REMAKE OF KAALCHAKRA LIKELY, SAYS AVINASH ONKAR

First-time producer Shri Avinash Onkar plans to remake his Marathi film ‘Kaalchakra’ screened as part of the Indian Panorama Section at IFFI-2007 in Hindi. While speaking to media persons here today, Shri Onkar informed that he was inspired to make Kaalchakra, a film that deals with the life situation of HIV + persons and how the society excludes them at large, after having personally witnessed the plight of some of the HIV + persons known to him in real life. The Hindi version would allow spreading the message of the film to a much wider audience, the producer commented.

The film’s director, Shri Vishal Bhandari stressed that great amount of research had gone in finalizing the film’s story such as acquiring authentic information on AIDS and HIV + cases from the National AIDS Research Institute, Pune and interaction with real life HIV + people. Meanwhile, commenting on his decision to play the main protagonist of the film i.e. Shekhar, Sachin Khedekar said “It was a rare opportunity to work in a film that provided me an opportunity to give back to the society which has given so much to me”.

The film revolves around the life of Shekhar whose dreams come crashing down, when he discovers that he is HIV +. He loses his family, job and self-respect. The film deals with the problems that Shekhar faces in terms of social exclusion and how he gradually acquires the will and determination to give himself a better future. Finally Shekhar succeeds.