Bollywood asianculturevulture vibes – The good, the bad, the 1970s motorbike and a viral wedding…
Drugs, the ‘Sholay’ bike and a disappointing box office run for almost all but one of the releases and a wedding with stars – this is November in mainstream Indian cinema for you…
By Rodrigues C
THE CHILLS have started in Mumbai much earlier than expected.
And a storm is brewing in Bollywood circles.
It all started in 2022 with the arrest of a drug peddler in Mumbai.
As the case progressed the peddler revealed names of many celebrities including from Bollywood.
Actor Shraddha Kapoor’s brother Siddhanth Kapoor – recently featured in the Netflix series ‘Mandala Murders’ – was one of them.
He was questioned for more than five hours by the Mumbai Police.
Another prominent celebrity from Mumbai Orhan Awatramani better known in media circles as Orry was also questioned for eight hours.
Orry is a media sensation and is often photographed with Bollywood A-listers and top business honchos from India.
Even after the lengthy questioning, the duo are believed not to be cooperating with the police.
Bollywood’s tryst with drugs is not new and new allegations regularly crop up and then the case goes numb after a few months.
Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan’s drug related case still makes headlines years after it first surfaced during the pandemic. He was cleared of any wrongdoing and some asked what was the point of his questioning being revealed to the media…
There’s often a flurry of speculation and rumour and the police appear poised to take action but then the trail goes cold but the damage has been done? You decide…
And the news cycle has moved now to the lavish wedding of two Indian Americans – tech entrepreneur Vamsi Gadiraju and US billionaire pharmacy heiress Netra Mantena. Vogue India described the wedding nuptials this past week as ‘the viral Udaipur wedding of the year’. A host of Bollywood stars including star director Karan Johar and icon Shah Rukh Khan have been involved, as has US pop star and actor Jennifer Lopez, while President Donald J Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jnr and girlfriend, Bettina Anderson also danced at the lavish celebrations this past week. Various clips of the wedding festivities have been splashed all over social media timelines and broadcast channels.
Now, can you imagine a 83-year-old motorbike making headlines?
Yes, that’s exactly what’s happening in Goa.
The bike in question (pictured above) is indeed an ordinary bike but it was ridden by one of India’s most iconic stars, Amitabh Bachchan and this story resurfaced following co-star Dharmendra’s passing earlier this month. The film ‘Sholay’ (1975) turned them both into megastars.
Featured in the ‘Yeh Dosti’ song, the 1942 BSA WM20 model is being displayed inside a glass shield at the recently concluded International Film Festival of India (IFFI – November 20-28) and is gaining massive attention all over India.
The bike’s registration number, MYB 3047, is from the erstwhile Mysore state. Director Ramesh Sippy and cinematographer Dwarka Divecha added a sidecar to the original which is missing right now.
Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam’s courtroom drama ‘Haq’ and Rashmika Mandanna and Dheekshith Shetty’s Telugu movie, ‘The Girlfriend’ released on November 7; both failed at the box office.
The former had an opening of £149,000, followed by £286,000 and £329,000 from Friday-Sunday. The latter kicked off with a £111,000 collection, followed by £205,000 and £230,000. The box office haul for both movies now stands at £2.3m each.
Ajay Devgn, Rakul Preet Singh and R Madhavan’s romantic comedy, ‘De De Pyaar De 2’ hit theatres on Friday, November 14. It started with a decent £750,000 on opening day, minting £4.1m million in the first week and £2m in week two.
Overall it has collected £10.2 million worldwide and overtaken ‘Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat’ to become the second highest grossing romantic movie of the year behind Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda’s ‘Saiyaara’.Not bad for a movie which was made on a budget of £11.5m.
Razneesh Ghai’s much anticipated war drama ‘120 Bahadur’ which is based on the Battle of Rezang La (Dharmendra’s 1964 drama ‘Haqeeqat’ was based on the same subject) — fought by the 13 Kumaon Regiment during the Sino-Indian war of 1962 — failed to resonate with audiences.
The film stars Farhan Akhtar as Param Vir Chakra awardee Major Shaitan Singh Bhati and Raashii Khanna; it has been narrated by Amitabh Bachchan. Released on Friday, November 21, the film opened to a poor £192, 000 collection. But on day two, the collection rose to £329,000. Day three saw a further boost with the film raking in £341,000. The slump started from Monday with the film collecting a meagre £119,000 and £128,00 the following day. It is game over for the £7.6m budgeted drama.
Sex comedy ‘Mastiii 4’, starring Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh and Aftab Shivdasani also hit theatres on Friday, November 21 and has fared worse than ‘120 Bahadur’.
In fact, the film was expected to do well considering its part of a franchise which kicked off in 2004. It opened to a meagre £235,000.
Saturday too saw the same numbers. On Sunday it made £256,000. And just like ‘120 Bahadur’, the film’s collections sank on Monday and Tuesday to £128,000 and £136,000.
Countering the generally poor sales peformances, Aanand L Rai’s Dhanush and Kriti Sanon’s romantic drama, ‘Tere Ishq Mein’, roared to a £1.4m opening on November 28 owing to positive reviews. Collections were reported to be steady yesterday (November 29) and the film reached £2.8m.
November was mostly a bad month for Bollywood films – but then we have December…
Next month’s releases include ‘Dhurandhar’ (Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan), the £17m big budget Telugu fantasy actioner ‘Akhanda 2’ (with Nandamuri Balakrishna & Samyuktha Menon) and ‘Kalamkaval’ (Mammootty, Vinayakan) on December 5; Kannada thriller ‘The Devil’ (Darshan, Mahesh Manjrekar) on December 11; and Karan Johar production ‘Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri’ (Kartik Aaryan, Ananya Panday) and Kannada movie ‘Mark’ (Kiccha Sudeep) on Christmas Day.
Also releasing on Christmas Day is Dharmendra’s last film – ‘Ikkis’, it’s a war film about the India-Pakistan conflict of 1971 and features Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda. The film is written and directed by Sriram Raghavan who made the hit ‘Johnny Gaddaar’ with Dharmendra previously and enjoyed huge success with ‘Andhadun’ (2018).
We shall be back just before New Year’s eve. Catch you then.
