May is all about the early monsoons, ‘Raid 2’ and the ‘Hera Pheri’ controversy between two stars – Askhay Kumar and Paresh Rawal; June looks more promising with blockbuster releases … here’s all that we have and more…
By Rodrigues C
THIS MONDAY GONE (May 26), was Mumbai’s wettest May day in 107 years; 295mm rain. The previous record of 279.4mm of rainfall was set in 1918.
The Southwest monsoon reached the city 16 days ahead of schedule, the earliest since 1950.
NOW, LET’S GET TALKING.
The arrival of monsoon always brings in a lot of cheer to Mumbai… until there is flooding of course and other rain related mishaps.
Bollywood too gets affected due to the monsoon fury of Mumbai. Take for example the shoot of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film ‘Love & War’, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal and Alia Bhatt, which got affected due to the downpour.
Shoot cancellations badly affect everybody connected with such projects, especially the big names who have packed daily schedules.
In the case of Bhansali’s film, the shoot was supposed to be held with 500 people along with Kapoor and Kaushal. But trains stooped plying in the city and most of the extras couldn’t make it to the shoot.
While there was mayhem for some stars, others such as Madhuri Dixit were celebrating.
The actress posed a video on Instagram, where she is dancing to the song ‘Ye Mausam Ka Jadoo Hai Mitwa’, from her 1994 film ‘Hum Aapke Hai Koun’ co-starring Salman Khan.
The ‘Hera Pheri’ controversy has dominated headlines in India the last few days.
It all started on May 18, when actor Paresh Rawal announced on X about his last minute exit from the third instalment of the franchise despite being paid thrice his regular fee.
At this time, shooting dates and schedules for the Priyadarshan directorial were already fixed.
Soon after, Askshay Kumar, whose production house Cape of Good Films is producing the film, decided to sue Rawal for ₹25 crore (£2.1 million).
Kumar has reportedly bought the rights to the film from producer Firoz A Nadiadwala for ₹10 crore (£869,000).
Rawal’s lawyer Anand & Naik said that ‘Hera Pheri 3’ makers “did not deliver the story, screenplay or a draft of a long-form agreement which was fundamental to the engagement and also since Mr Nadiadwala, the producer of the original films, issued notice to our client and raised issues on the making of the film”.
Every day, new stories are emerging in the media about the ‘Hera Pheri 3’ feud.
Recently, Priyadarshan went on record saying that he never intended to do the second instalment of the film but Aki (aka Kumar as his popular nickname goes) convinced him to helm it.
The fact remains that ‘Hera Pheri’, which released in 2000 and ‘Phir Hera Pheri,’ in 2006, have become cult films over the years.
The characters of Rawal as the bespectacled, dhoti-clad Babu Bhaiya, as well as Raju (Aki) and Ghanshyam (Suniel Shetty) are etched in the memory of a generation of cinema lovers.
Without Rawal, ‘Hera Pheri’ surely wouldn’t have been the phenomenon that it is now. And a third instalment without him would surely be an incomplete film?
Moving on, Ajay Devgn and Riteish Deshmukh starrer ‘Raid 2’, released on May 1. Made on a budget of £10.4m, the Raj Kumar Gupta directorial opened to £1.6m takings on the first day. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the thriller collected £1.04m, £1.5m and £1.9m, respectively. While week one was impressive, the second week’s collections dropped to just £3.6m. Now in its fourth week, the film’s worldwide box office stands at around £21m.
Sanjay Dutt and Mouni Roy starrer ‘The Bhootnii’ had a disastrous box office run collecting just over £56,000 on day one of its release on May 1. The movie’s poor reviews may have affected its box office which now stands at just about £1m.
Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi’s romantic comedy ‘Bhool Chuk Maaf’ hit theatres on May 23 with a decent opening of £608,000 on a Friday. The comedy improved its numbers on Saturday collecting £826,000 and went one step ahead on Sunday with a box office of £1m. Good reviews from critics and the audience alike have helped the Karan Sharma directorial amass about £3.6m at the box office.
June will see some big films fight it out at the box office.
After his 2022 debacle ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, Aamir Khan will come out with his latest offering ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ on June 20.
The film is an adaptation of the Spanish film ‘Champions’ and co-stars Genelia Deshmukh.
Mr Perfectionist will have competition in the form of the Dhanush-Nagarjuna-Rashmika Mandanna thriller ‘Kuberaa’, which also releases the same day.
‘Housefull 5’, featuring an ensemble that boasts of Aki, Riteish Deshmukh, Abhishek Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez and Nargis Fakhri will hit theatres on June 6.
The day before will see the release of Mani Ratnam’s ‘Thug Life’ with Kamal Haasan and Trisha Krishnan.
Kajol will make her Bollywood comeback with the release of ‘Maa’ on June 27.
With a lineup of promising films, June will surely determine the fate of many more films that Bollywood will churn out during the second half of 2025. The bets are on. Till then… tata from a cloudy and overcast Mumbai…
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