Ferrari Ki Sawaari team shoots cricket sequence in rain

Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Ferrari Ki Sawaari shot their most crucial scene last week, after a wait of two long months. Close sources reveal how they shot their one of the most important scenes in the script – that is the ‘Cricket sequence’.

The team, who has finished its first schedule of shooting, had kept one exclusive scene pending for over 60 days especially for the rains as they wanted to shoot it under natural rainfall.

The team filmed this significant cricket sequence at the University Ground, Marine Lines last week amidst heavy downpour, which was a blessing to them as they were waiting for the perfect weather since a very long time.

The cast and the crew of film kept postponing the dates to capture this portion, which forms the pulse of the film. There was a lot of to and fro to match the dates and time of the entire team for this particular scene as the rains were unpredictable.

Director, Rajesh Mapuskar was keen that the scene should be nothing less than perfect and all is done authentically. The film team was very supportive to him and generously managed their dates accordingly.

Finally the wait came to an end last week, where they managed to shoot the two day long cricket sequence in the desired weather with heavy rainfall.

Director Rajesh Mapuskar says, “I have been working under Rajkumar Hirani and Vinod Chopra since a while now and one of the first things that I have learnt is to be true to the script. Earlier also we have shot in the authentic backdrop of Mumbai University, we have also shot live on roads amongst live audience – even when shooting with Sharman Joshi. So it was very important for us to authentically shoot this cricket sequence as it happens to be one of our most important sequences.”

More than half of the shooting is done and now the crucial scene is also taken care of. Lead actor Sharman Joshi and director Rajesh Mapuskar are now gearing up to complete the rest of the script.

“Special thanks to Sharman and my team. Sharman, other cast members and the entire crew were extremely supportive of me and made sure that we film this sequence as we had imagined according to the script. 60% of the filming is over and we are very much running on schedule. Our next schedule of shoot will begin post September after the rains,” adds Rajesh Mapuskar.

Balochistan MPAs book the day for Pak-India clash

As cricket fever has overwhelmed the entire nation, the Balochistan Provincial Assembly Members (MPAs) are also feeling the heat of Pakistan versus India semi-final.

All most all the MPAs, including the speaker, have cancelled their official engagements to watch the Pakistan-India encounter on Wednesday. They said that they had full confidence in the abilities of Afridi XI, adding that the team would not only defeat India but also bring the World Cup back to the country.

 

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra on 5 years of Rang De Basanti

The cast and crew of the momentous Rang De Basanti (RDB) watched the film exactly five years after its release on January 26.
And the best part of this retrospective experience was that the team watched exactly the same print that they had viewed five years ago when they first saw RDB.
After the screening, the entire retrospective team of RDB moved from the theatre to the film’s producer Ronnie Screwvala’s home.
Says Rakeysh, “Ronnie’s home was the nearest to the theatre. So we all moved there and kept chatting about the film till 5 in the morning. I got to know many things that I didn’t know about my film, things that the cast and crew had managed on its own while I was preoccupied with something else. It was an amazing experience to just sit and talk about a film that means so much to us.”
While Rakeysh is thrilled by the film’s lingering relevance to this day, he’s also deeply saddened by it. “As an artiste it is gratifying to know that the film still has a deep relevance to society and to cinema. But it’s also sad that the issues that RDB raised are today more relevant than they were five years ago. As a filmmaker I am happy that No One Killed Jessica used images from RDB. But as a citizen of India it is deeply saddening to know that issues of socio-political injustice that the film raised are more alive today than five years ago. I can only cross my fingers and hope that the issues in RDB are not relevant five years from now.”
Says Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, “The happiest part of viewing RDB again with the entire team was that my daughter Bhairavi and her best-friend Tarni who were only 7 when RDB was first released, empathized with the film now. Some of the big names associated with the film couldn’t make it though. Madhavan and Soha Ali Khan were in London. Waheeda Rehmanji was in Bangalore. A R Rahman was away. But the one we missed the most was Lataji (Mangeshkar). When I called to invite her she regretfully said she had another Republic Day commitment. Besides, she argued, she had seen RDB just two days earlier.”

Fog-covered Motorway closed again

ISLAMABAD: Motorway has once again been closed for all sorts of traffic, as dense fog has prevailed over the entire landscape here on Monday night.

Commuters travelling to or from Lahore, are facing massive troubles owing to thick fog on highways including Motorway.

Motorway stretch from Sheikhupura Interchange to Ravi Toll Plaza, has been shut down thanks to zero visibility.

IG Motorway said travelers re advised to take alternative path, attributing the decision to poor visibility that shrank to 15 meters on some places.

The Motorway high officials directed passengers to travel except under emergency with fog lights on. TrendPK

Bangladesh miffed with Shahrukh

Click above for more event stills

Just recently the King Khan of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan returned from his trip to Bangladesh and along with him his entire performance troupe consisting of Rani Mukherjee, Arjun Rampal and Eesha Koppikhar. Though every thing was hunky dory right through the schedule, it seems now matters have flared owing to certain hurt sentiments and ideologies.

It is learnt that the Bangladeshi public are pretty peeved with the Khan for a number of reasons as certain local newspapers from the neighbouring country claim, but most importantly being the grouses of SRK being treated like a VVIP, him smoking in public, lack of moral behaviour of the troupe and also insulting the Bangladeshis on home soil.

We break it down a bit, to analyze each point, the VVIP treatment that SRK and troupe received was apparently uncalled for as the organizers and nor the government have delegated a VVIP status to SRK.

While smoking in public is banned for the general masses in Bangladesh, the Khan was busy puffing away while cameras rolled and the audience watched on. As for the moral activity, the paper claims that the foreign dancers who accompanied the performance troupe indulged in certain amoral activity while at the hotel.

But by far the most infuriating of all was the apparent sidelining and insulting of the Bangladeshi public, as SRK continued to speak in Hindi and English, while he performed in the most of Bangladeshi liberation.

However it is surprising to note that though the entire show had approximately over 30000 people gathered the organisers were lethargic at admitting them to the auditorium, besides this another fact to think about is even though the Bangladeshi government has paid the stars to perform at the show, why not impose certain rules and regulations, if not then why complain post the event?

Apart from all these there are also complaints about the five hour show starting well behind schedule, and even questions being asked about the permission that was granted to remit an astronomical sum in terms of foreign currency to the celebrities. What ever be the case it certainly seems like our Bollywood stars will steer clear of zones like these.

Bangladesh miffed with Shahrukh

Click above for more event stills

Just recently the King Khan of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan returned from his trip to Bangladesh and along with him his entire performance troupe consisting of Rani Mukherjee, Arjun Rampal and Eesha Koppikhar. Though every thing was hunky dory right through the schedule, it seems now matters have flared owing to certain hurt sentiments and ideologies.

It is learnt that the Bangladeshi public are pretty peeved with the Khan for a number of reasons as certain local newspapers from the neighbouring country claim, but most importantly being the grouses of SRK being treated like a VVIP, him smoking in public, lack of moral behaviour of the troupe and also insulting the Bangladeshis on home soil.

We break it down a bit, to analyze each point, the VVIP treatment that SRK and troupe received was apparently uncalled for as the organizers and nor the government have delegated a VVIP status to SRK.

While smoking in public is banned for the general masses in Bangladesh, the Khan was busy puffing away while cameras rolled and the audience watched on. As for the moral activity, the paper claims that the foreign dancers who accompanied the performance troupe indulged in certain amoral activity while at the hotel.

But by far the most infuriating of all was the apparent sidelining and insulting of the Bangladeshi public, as SRK continued to speak in Hindi and English, while he performed in the most of Bangladeshi liberation.

However it is surprising to note that though the entire show had approximately over 30000 people gathered the organisers were lethargic at admitting them to the auditorium, besides this another fact to think about is even though the Bangladeshi government has paid the stars to perform at the show, why not impose certain rules and regulations, if not then why complain post the event?

Apart from all these there are also complaints about the five hour show starting well behind schedule, and even questions being asked about the permission that was granted to remit an astronomical sum in terms of foreign currency to the celebrities. What ever be the case it certainly seems like our Bollywood stars will steer clear of zones like these.

Avoid Jolie, Depp”s ”Tourist” trap

LOS ANGELES: What”s served under a label promising first-class Champagne tastes like last night”s prosecco in “The Tourist,” a zero-chemistry pairing of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp that opens in theaters Friday.

Staggeringly misjudged in virtually every department, from the wannabe effervescent script to Depp”s dopey hairdo, the Sony release stands as an object lesson in the perils of succumbing to the siren call of big-time Hollywood filmmaking for a foreign director with one art house hit behind him. The studio”s publicity machine will work overtime to drum up some initial business, but “Tourist” will fall into a trap of its own making.

After receiving near-universal acclaim and a foreign-language Oscar for his 2006 debut feature, “The Lives of Others,” a quietly riveting suspense drama set in East Germany, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who grew up partially in the US and speaks perfect English, was inundated with offers from all quarters but wanted to choose carefully. After such a long delay, for him to have finally settled on this trifling romp over the rooftops and in the canals of Venice is stupefying to say the least and will give plenty of ammunition to the small band of detractors of his earlier outing.

Embalmed in makeup and elegant gowns that puts one in mind of Loretta Young and employing a reserved English accent that allows no possibility of genuine emotional expression, Jolie plays Elise, the object of much male attention in the opening scenes, which is no surprise even though the men in question are all surveillance experts intent upon following her every move in the hope she”ll lead them to her criminal lover, one Alexander Pearce. After she receives a note instructing her to take a morning train from Paris to Venice, the chase is on, and she knows it.

With every guy on board keen for Elise to sit next to them, she instead gloms on to the scruffy, rather forlorn-looking Frank Tupelo, a mild-mannered math teacher from Wisconsin. Baffled and unnerved by her attentions, Frank is thoroughly unequipped to partake in the kind of witty, insinuating dialogue expected in stories of train-bound intrigue. Not that Donnersmarck, having revamped previous scripts by the estimable Julian Fellowes and Christopher McQuarrie, has written any. But it”s woefully clear from their first scene together that, not only is there nothing clicking between the stars, but that the entire enterprise is madly artificial and silly, that whatever games are being played here are not going to be fun.

Donnersmarck, along with his multitude of producers, must have dreamed that, with two of the most glamorous and best-looking stars in the business, he had a shot of making a modern Hitchcock romantic thriller along the lines of “The 39 Steps,” “To Catch a Thief” and “North by Northwest.” Well, dream on. No one here evinces the slightest feel for that sort of sly sophistication. Instead, we get tiresome scenes of the hapless Frank, who”s presumed to be the much sought-after Alexander, being pursued by goons of a Scotland Yard contingent led by Paul Bettany and by those of a gangster tycoon (Steven Berkoff) from whom Alexander stole a fortune and who you”d believe to be Russian but for his British accent.

Least accountable of all is the growing affection Elise seems to be feeling for the ineffectual Frank. Or is she pretending? One minute she invites him into her sumptuous suite at the Danieli, the next she makes him sleep on the couch. After telling him to go home and dropping him at the airport, she then dances with him at an elegant ball. But no matter as the film manages to build nary a trace of interest in either character.

Looking puffy and unassertive, Depp never has registered less effectively in his entire film career. For Jolie”s part, the nature of her role doesn”t allow her to show her hand to anyone, severely limiting the extent of characterization. This is where wit and lively banter would come in handy, but this is more difficult to appropriate from old movies than is format.

Surely Donnersmarck did not set out to remake Death in Venice, but artistically, that is what has been achieved.

Samir Karnik accuses No Problem makers of copying his poster designs

It is that copycat syndrome again. Or so director Samir Karnik believes. In an angry outburst he says his posters of the three loveable Sardarjis – Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby Deol in Yamla Pagla Deewana has inspired director Anees Bazmee to put his entire male cast into turbans on the posters of No Problem.

Says Samir, “We came up with posters showing the Deols in turbans. Soon after that, I saw similar posters of No Problem with all their heroes Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna etc. as Sardarjis, plastered all over town. It can’t be a coincidence.”

No Problem director Anees Bazmi agrees there is design behind the Sikh posters. “We shot the song with the entire cast dressed up in Sikh turbans a year ago. So where’s the question of copying the other film? With due respects to Dharam paaji, Sunny, Bobby and Samir Karnik, my links with Punjab and Punjabiyat go back a long way. I made Singh Is Kingg. And if I had my way, I’d make Singh Is Kinng 2 too. But I am not being allowed to. You’ll have to ask producer Vipul Shah why.”
However, Samir Karnik gets the last word in on the question of Punjabiyat.

Says Karnik, “Amost everyone in the cast and crew of Yamla Pagla Deewana is Sikh. All the Deols, our leading lady Kulraj Randhawa even our writer Jasvinder Singh Bhatt are Sikhs. They (the unit of No Problem) might have shot their turbaned song first. But our posters were out first.”

Five blasts rock Turbat airport

Staff Report

TURBAT: Five back-to-back blasts have rocked Turbat airport, Trend Pk reported Wednesday.

Paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) personnel reached the scene and cordoned off the entire area.

Fire was opened at FC personnel from a house, which is reportedly owned by Baloch leader Ayub Khan Gachki.

According to reports, insurgents are present in the house which has been surrounded by paramilitary troops.

There are no immediate reports of casualties. Trend Pk

"Why should I return their 5 crores?" – Anees Bazmee reacts on controversy

BJN Group of Hotels may have changed their mood when it came to their filmmaking plans in Bollywood. However, writer-director Anees Bazmee doesn’t have any

plans to change his mood. Though Nichanis of BJN Group are taking a legal route to get back the signing amount of Rs. 5 crores that they had paid to Bazmee a

couple of years back, the filmmaker is perplexed with the demand. Bazmee on his side of the story.
No interest to begin with “I signed up to do a film for Nichanis around 2

years back, Nichanis were the ones who were actually after me to make a film for them. I wasn’t even interested. To woo me, they used to send food for my

entire unit when I was shooting for some other film. They just wanted to impress me and make me happy. It was only after my team also persisted that they

were good people that I actually took a signing amount from them.”
Jab We Met “When I met them finally, they seemed to be very

enthusiastic. They really wanted me to make a film for them and were ready with the money. They were quite serious about their filmmaking plans and wanted to

do something really big.”
Rokda “Yes, the signing amount was Rs. 5 crore. This

was the amount that I used to charge during those days. I was paid by cheque.”
Change in mood “I worked on the entire writing process for 7-8

months. When I was ready, they had a turnaround. They now came back to me and said that they were no more in mood to make a film. Fair enough. But then they

also asked me to return the signing amount. Now that’s unfair. Why should I do that?”
The loss “Putting together plans for a film is hard work. For me it

was a lost opportunity. During this time period, I could have worked on some other film and got paid for it. Mera bhi nuksaan hua iss film ke naa shuru hone

se. For them it is a loss of signing amount; for me it is a loss in my career journey. You don’t make a creative person work on something and then ask your

amount back. Aise nahi hota hai!”
The contract “There was no contract around signing amount or anything.

All we had done was write it down on a small piece of paper that I had to work on a film and had been paid the signing amount of Rs. 5 crores by cheque.

Today, after retracting from their plans, they have sent me a notice through their legal team. That’s okay, mera jawaab bhi gaya hai. Yeh sawaal-jawaab toh

chal hi rahe hain. Let’s see.”

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