"I’m definitely making 2 States" – Sajid Nadiadwala
Off late there have been numerous speculations, rumours, gossips and hearsay circulating around the making of the newest Sajid Nadiadwala production which is an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s popular book 2 States.
The film was announced shortly after the release of Nadiadwala’s last production Anjaana Anjaani and though there was an official statement made in this regard, tongues have continued to wag around it’s director, star cast, timeline and other logistics. While Siddharth Anand is supposed to direct the 2 States adaptation, there have been constant murmurs around Saif Ali Khan walking in and out of project as well as the choice of heroine being either Priyanka Chopra or Deepika Padukone. Also, the film by itself has been a bone of contention as apparently the screenplay hasn’t been finalised yet, hence leading to further doubts around whether it would come on floors in near future.
“I am most definitely making 2 States. I have bought the rights so eventually I would be making the film,” says producer Sajid Nadiadwala.
At Bollywood Hungama, we bring to you all the bare facts right from Sajid Nadiadwala, the man at the hot seat.
The director
“Siddharth is on board as a director. He is already working on putting together the screenplay.”
The hero
“Saif Ali Khan is confirmed as the leading man for the film.”
The heroine
“No heroine is finalised, whether it is Priyanka or Deepika or anyone else. The screenplay has to be finalised first.”
The screenplay
“Most screenplays take time to be written. Sometimes it can be cracked in 15 days, sometimes it takes 6 months. Siddharth is working on it.”
The timelines
“There is no timeline decided yet. As I said, first the screenplay has to be finalised, then the remaining actors would be approached and its only after all of this is locked that we can make announcements around the shooting kick start.”
In the meanwhile…
“I am constantly asked if Siddharth can make any other film for another production house. Of course, why not? I can understand if there is some time that Siddharth needs to get the screenplay in place for 2 States. If he feels that he would want to use the interim time period to make another film, he can take a call. He is not under any contract with ‘Nadiadwala Grandson’ and make films for outside banners too, if he desires.
In 2 States, Saif will play Punjabi boy who marries his Tamilian girlfriend
Saif Ali Khan is all set to play his first biographical character in Siddharth Anand’s 2 States. The role of the Punjabi ‘boy’ Krish who will marry
his Tamilian sweetheart Ananya but only with the consent of the two sets of parents is essentially the story of Bhagat’s own courtship and marriage in real
life.
Saif is expected to spend time with Chetan Bhagat to understand his character and get into Krish’s mind. In real life too, Saif is all set to get into a
cross-cultural marriage. 2 States is quite a learning curve for the Nawab.
Bhagat would like to exercise a more close vigil over the casting of the protagonists than he did in his novel’s other movie adaptations like Hello
(One Night At The Call Centre) and 3 Idiots (5 Point Someone). In both these cases Bhagat had no say. And he liked it that way.
But in 2 States, the personal element is extremely pronounced. For better or for worse Saif Ali Khan came to the storyboard from the outset as part of
the project.
And Bhagat is okay with that. Says India’s best-selling author, “It is not important for Krish to be played by a Punjabi or Ananya to be played by a
Tamilian. I’m aware Saif is not a Punjabi. To me that serves the story’s purpose even better. The whole idea of 2 States is to convey a pan-India
appeal. The novel is about an inter-state union. What better way to show this than to have a non-Punjabi actor playing my Punjabi protagonist?”
However, if Saif thinks he can just walk into the role of the Punjabi guy and claim it to be his own, as he did in Imtiaz Ali’s Love Aaj Kal, then he
has another thought coming. Chetan Bhagat would like the Punjabi protagonist’s projection in 2 States to be freed of stereotypes and external
trappings.
Says Bhagat, “We’re always shown Punjabis and Tamils in a culture-specific light. I wouldn’t want my protagonists to be portrayed with regional
eccentricities.”
In brief, Saif has a lot of preparation to do this time. Unlike the Sardarji in Love Aaj Kal, the Punjabi boy in 2 States would have to be
played as a product of a pan-Indian sensibility. This is not to say he can play it Saif. It would require a personality transformation far more subtle than
Saif’s Langda Tyagi in Omkara with very little physical prop.
Director Siddharth Anand who is the star’s old friend is looking at a large stretch of preparation-time for his hero which Saif would be able to give only
after he completes his home production Agent Vinod.
Chetan Bhagat admits 2 States is his most personal novel to date and the screen adaptation most precious to him. “Like Krish in my novel I fell in love with
a Tamil girl and we decided to marry only with the parent’s consent. In the film Ek Duuje Ke Liye when the Tamil boy decides to marry the Punjabi girl their
parents slap and beat up their respective offsprings. Aaj ke din kaun bachche maar khayenge? So you could say 2 States is like Ek Duuje Ke
Liye meeting Diwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.”
Akshay-Aishwarya to do a Rishi- Dimple, Amitabh-Jaya in Action Replayy
Akshay and Aishwarya are thrilled. They’ll get to enact songs featuring their mother-in-law Dimple and father-in-law Amitabh, respectively. But composer Pritam Chakraborty is in a bit of a jam. Vipul Shah has decided at the last minute to re-record an entire complicated track for Action Replayy for a retro-song to be filmed on Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Akshay Kumar.
And this is no ordinary request. The one all-comprehensive track will have to represent screen jodis as diverse as Raj Kapoor-Nargis, Rajesh Khanna -Mumtaz, Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya, Dharmendra-Hema Malini and Rishi Kapoor-Dimple Kapadia.
The long-planned retro-song representing various eras of evergreen screen-jodis has now undergone a massive change. Every section of the song will now have differently mooded lyrics and tunes to go with the different looks that Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will don to represent screen pairs over the decades.
Pritam had recorded a straightforward love song for the situation. That just won’t do. The director has a far more ambitious tune-plan which Pritam has not quite understood as yet.
Vipul who has just got Akshay and Aishwarya’s dates in July to shoot the song in Manali, has asked his exceedingly-busy composer Pritam to scrap the song that he had recorded and create an entirely new composition that would aurally represent Akshay and Aishwarya’s tribute to screen pairs over the years.
Explains Vipul, “I feel it isn’t enough to simply dress up Akshay and Aishwarya to represent the various screen pairs. Every section of the music, vocals and lyrics will represent the pair that we show Akshay and Aishwarya playing. For example if the mukhda is dedicated to Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz then I want the R.D. Burman feel of ‘Jai Jai Shiv Shankar’ in Aap Ki Kasam. On the other hand, if I want Akshay and Aishwarya to do a Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bachchan, I’d want Pritam to come with a suitable mood and tune, like R D. Burman’s ‘Bahon Mein Chale Aaon’ in Anamika. If I show Akshay-Ash doing Raj-Nargis I want a Shankar-Jaikishan piece. If I show Akshay-Ash doing Dharmendra and Hema Malini then I want a Laxmikant-Pyarelal section in the composition. But if I want Akshay-Ash doing Shammi Kapoor-Sharmila Tagore then I want O.P. Nayyar to come into play.”
Just how Pritam would get all these diverse and seemingly-incompatible compositional style into one song is a mystery to the composer.
But Vipul is confident. “Pritam is smart and he is talented. He will do it. Our film music is so rich. Not only are there composers as far-ranging as Madan Mohan and Shankar-Jaikishan, even the composer that you hear in one kind of cinema is different from what he does in another kind of cinema. How can we compare what R D. Burmam composed for Rajesh-Sharmila with what he composed for Rajesh -Mumtaz? I want all of this diversity to be part of that one song.”
Pritam who has already composed two full-on retro numbers for Action Replayy–a satire on marriage and an Elvis Presley styled rock ‘n’ roll track – has a month to rise to the occasion. The most ambitious retro song in the history of Indian cinema will be shot on July 12, 13, 14 and 15 in Manali.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra slams legal notice on makers of The 4th Idiot
Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 3 Idiots may have raked in a lot of moolah for the maverick filmmaker but the film did face its share of controversies. First it was author Chetan Bhagat who accused the makers of not giving him enough credit for the storyline. While that issue died its own death in due course of time, now the makers seem to have another controversy to take care of.
Apparently, Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury (who deals with memory enhancement techniques) has gone ahead and made a 35 minute animation film called The 4th Idiot. The movie starts where 3 Idiots ends i.e. at Phunsuk Wangdu’s school and tells the story of a young boy Pappu who achieves his many dreams using the techniques taught by Rancho in 3 Idiots. What’s even more surprising is that Omi Vaidya, who was seen as Chatur Ramalingam in 3 Idiots, has given his voice-over for this animated film. The 4th Idiot was to be screened for students at the World Unity Convention Centre in Lucknow recently. However, the makers seem to be in a soup now as Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions have taken legal action against them
Vidhu Vinod Chopra is furious with the makers of this film for using a similar title, story idea and setting in their film. He has even slapped a law-suit on producer-director Biswarop Roy Chowdhury for copyright violation. Chopra is now awaiting the verdict on this case.
Aamir Khan Film Brings Cheer to Bollywood
December 29, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under Entertainment
MUMBAI: Aamir Khan’s new film has given Bollywood a boost after a disappointing year marked by a damaging strike, swine flu fears and a series of big budget flops.
The romantic comedy “3 Idiots”, which was released worldwide last Friday, Christmas Day, took more than one billion rupees (20 million dollars) in its first four days, Reliance Big Pictures said in a statement Monday night.
Producer Vinod Chopra described the opening weekend as “overwhelming” while Reliance Big Pictures chairman Amit Khanna said it was “phenomenal”.
Indian newspaper reports said that the film’s initial box office takings even beat Khan’s Christmas 2008 offering “Ghajini”, which went on to become Bollywood’s biggest grossing film of all time.
“3 Idiots” is based on the best-selling debut novel by Indian author Chetan Bhagat, “Five Point Someone”, about three struggling students at a leading business school.
Khan is known for making one big film per year in an industry where leading actors and actresses can be working on several movies at the same time.
Industry analysts had expected “3 Idiots” to do well, suggesting that other studios could follow Khan’s example and concentrate on the quality of scripts and production rather than quantity.
The last 12 months have been disappointing for Bollywood, with revenues hit by a two-month boycott of multiplex cinemas led by producers over box office takings, then swine flu, which closed some cinemas on public health grounds.
Both delayed the release of movies, causing a backlog then a glut of new films opening at the same time, denting takings from a public that is showing signs of disaffection with under-performing big budget films.
Aamir Khan Film Brings Cheer to Bollywood was first posted on December 29, 2009 at 4:27 pm.
