The Bollywood flops of 2009

The Bollywood flops of 2009
What's Your Raashee?
Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year
8 x 10 Tasveer
Blue
Billu
Chandni Chowk To China
Kurbaan
Main Aurr Mrs Khanna
London Dreams

The year 2009 has not been too good for Bollywood, as some of the most-awaited movies like Chandni Chowk To China and Blue sank at the box office.

Trade analyst Vinod Mirani gives us a list of the top 10 flops of the year. Take a look.

Dil Bole Haddipa

A copy of Hollywood film She Is The Man, Dil Bole Hadippa did not earn a hit status for its heroine Rani Mukerji.

Rani played Veera in the film, who is very passionate about cricket. The only way she can be a part of the local cricket team is if she transforms herself into a Sardar boy. So Veera becomes Veer. Not too long after, she falls in love with the team's captain, played by Shahid Kapoor.

Yash Raj Films' bad phase at the box office continued, and Rani found herself slowly slipping off the ranks.


Image: A scene from Dil Bole Haddipa

Surprise in 'Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna' Revealed

The Salman Khan Kareena Kapoor starrer 'Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna' is all set to release today and just hours before its release, a surprise in the film is revealed. The surprise is none other than leggy lass Deepika Padukone, who will appear in a cameo in the Salman flick. Looks like Deepika in undeterred by the war between the Khans, as all are aware, she owes her career to Shah Rukh, who made her a star right from her first film 'Om Shanti Om'. A smart girl that she is she does not believe in being part of camps and is happy being good to everyone. Well, that's like a true lady.

Which babe will sizzle this Diwali?

Like all Diwali releases, this year looks like a crackling one as well for we have not one but three movies -- Blue, All The Best and Main Aurr Mrs Khanna -- hitting the marquee on October 16.

All three movies promise action, comedy and romance. The star cast is an eclectic mix too. We have Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Lara Dutta, Sanjay Dutt and Zayed Khan in Blue; Ajay Devgn, Bipasha Basu, Sanjay Dutt again, Mugdha Godse and Fardeen Khan in All The Best; and Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Sohail Khan in Main Aurr Mrs Khanna.

While the star cast looks rock solid, it's the women who grab our attention. All of them look sexy, and it would be interesting to see who will shine the brightest.

So we've decided to ask you to vote for the woman, who has an edge over the others. Click through this slide show, and cast your cast at the end of it!

We start with Lara Dutta, whose bikini-clad body in Blue is currently the talk of the town. Promos show her swimming and snorkeling like a pro, which is amazing given the fact that she didn't know swimming at all before working on the movie!

Lara took swimming lessons and toned up her body to get the scenes right. Just for that, we give the actress a 10.

Here's how Bollywood celebrates Diwali

It's that dazzling time of the year again. The sparkling festival of Diwali is just around the corner.

Sure, it marks the release of biggies like Blue, Main Aurr Mrs Khanna and All The Best. But there's more to the Bollywood-Diwali connection than you think. Both are synonymous with lights, action and festivity.

rediff.com celebrates Diwali and its splendour-filled elements through the eyes of Bollywood.

It's called the festival of lights. And with good reason. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan gets into the spirit of Diwali with a radiant diya in her hand.


Image: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

'Two flops don't matter to Salman's career'

Prem Soni is one lucky director. In his very first film, he has managed to rope in Bollywood's top stars -- Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Not only that, he's also releasing his film Main Aurr Mrs Khanna on the Diwali weekend, a much-coveted Friday for most producers when the biggest movies get released.

Quite an achievement for for the first-timer, who lived in Spain for 17 years before he joined the Hindi film industry.

"I come from a business background," he says. "I had no connection with the film industry. But I've always wanted to make a film."

He decided to pursue his passion by getting the basics right. "I worked in television for more than a decade before I decided to do films," he says.

He spent two years writing on different subjects until he came out with the script for Main Aurr Mrs Khanna. And it was this script that attracted his lead stars -- and producer Sohail Khan -- to his film.


Image: A scene from Main Aurr Mrs Khanna. Inset: Prem Soni

This Diwali releases have broken all records of film promotion budget

As the three big Diwali releases, All The Best, Main Aurr Mrs Khanna and Blue, are gearing up for release, it comes to light that both the films have broken all records of promotions budgets for a film.

While Devgn Productions claim they've spent Rs 5 crore on publicity sources say they have actually spent double of that. While Blue has apparently spent 12 crores to create curiosity about their film. Main Aurr Mrs Khanna also releases on Diwali. Producer Sohail Khan, says, "I don't think publicity budgets need to be fixed. It depends from producer to producer."

In the South, there is a fixed sum that the producers can spend on the publicity of a film. They can't go beyond that. This is done to protect smaller producers, who don't have deep pockets. This way of functioning helps the whole industry.

Ajay Devgn's All The Best has been apparently made at a cost of more than 35 crore. Director Rohit Shetty, says, "Publicity budgets have increased between 25-30 per cent in the last one year. There are many avenues like more channels, websites and paid advertising avenues opening up which has drastically increased the publicity budgets of films. This cuts into the profit of the films as then the film needs to recover that extra Rs 4 crore spent on publicity. I think there should be some regulatory body fixing the costs."

Shree Ashtavinayak, producers of Blue have apparently spent almost 12 crore on the publicity. According to Dhilin Mehta, "The publicity amount to be spent on each movie differs from project to project. The publicity budget of Blue is much higher then that of Kidnap because the film is big, the underwater concept is being used for the first time in India. The estimate of the publicity budget of the film is roughly decided when we prepare the budget of the film before the start of the shoot, and varies between 8 to 10% of the film's cost. "

Tribute to R.D. Burman in 'Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna'

Mumbai, Sep 30 R.D. Burman's music continues to inspire today's filmmakers. While 'Kaminey' had two tracks of the late composing legend, now one of his songs will be heard in the forthcoming movie 'Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna'.

The legend's composition 'Bade achche lagte hain yeh dharti, yeh nadiya, yeh raina aur tum' makes a vital appearance in Sohail Khan's production 'Main Aurr Mrs Khanna'. The song was chosen because Kareena Kapoor's character is named Raina in the film and the word 'raina' is prominent in the song.

The film required a strong nostalgic theme song between Kareena and Sohail to create a sense of intimacy between the couple. And Amit Kumar's song from 'Balika Badhu' was everyone's favourite, it became the chosen one overriding the other popular choice 'Raina beeti jaye' from 'Amar Prem'.

Both 'Balika Badhu' and 'Amar Prem' were made by Shakti Samanta.

'It's a song that we all chose unanimously. It comes on when my character meets Kareena. When we meet, the song plays in the background. Since her character is named Raina, we loved the idea of having the song,' Sohail told IANS.

Interestingly, Sohail's other production 'Kissaan' also revived an old song 'Mere desh ki dharti'. But there's a difference.

Explains Sohail: 'While 'Mere deshi ki dharti' is part of the film's soundtrack, we haven't put 'Bade achche lagte hain' in the album for 'Main Aurr Mrs Khanna'. Though we've bought the rights for the song. Let's just say, we mean it to be a tribute to R.D. Burman and the tradition in Hindi lyrics celebrating raina (night).'

MAIN AURR MRS. KHANNA inspired by a true story

As per debutant director Prem Soni, MAIN AURR MRS. KHANNA is an absolute original script and not lifted from any American or European film. What's more, it is actually based on an idea that he got from a real life story.
"Around 4 years back, I had seen a close friend of mine going through a troubled marriage. He along with his wife were quite nervous about splitting and were actually trying hard to be with each other", remembers Prem, "The only emotion that bounded them together was that of love. And then there was a third angle to it as well; someone who was looking at them from a different point of view. This third angle was me."

After dropping this bombshell, Prem goes on to elaborate, "Looking at their story from my perspective, I thought that I could write it all well for big screen presentation. I dramatized it and played neutral to both husband and wife here. The way I looked at Mrs. Khanna was perhaps different from the way Mr. Khanna looked at her. This was the basic germ of an idea that I further went on to develop."

Once he presented the script to Salman, he immediately green lighted it.

"I was quite categorical in stating that this was an absolute original script with no references to Hollywood or European cinema. I went to Salman with a bound copy and as luck would have it, he was quite impressed and immediately on board", smiles Prem.

Reflecting on the incidents that happened 4 years back, Prem says, "See, at that time things were a little different as having a good job and a steady career were of paramount importance. Somehow there was a battle of love v/s career in my friend's life too. It's the same battle and different perspective as a resultant that has been explored in MAIN AURR MRS. KHANNA."

Salman arranges a special chopper for Kareena

We all know how generous and helpful our actor Salman Khan is by nature. When it comes to helping friends he will never stay behind and can go to any extent to comfort them.
Something similar happened on the sets of upcoming film MAIN AURR MRS. KHANNA, where Salman Khan made special arrangements for a chopper so that his leading lady, Kareena Kapoor, does not get delayed in reaching the location of her next shoot.

"When anybody is a part of Sohail Khan Productions, Salman Khan takes full care of the actor. The artiste is under his wings. Kareena had to reach for another important shoot that day. Time had already run out of hands and Kareena did not know what to do," said a source.

Salman instantly made arrangements for a chopper for her. "It was thanks to Salman's timely arrangement that Kareena could make it on time," said the source.

Truly Salman's generosity knows no bounds!

It Promises to a Dhamakedar Diwali

Diwali is still some time away but the lineup at the box office for the festival week has already been set. In fact, according to reports, there are four films which are set to create a dhamaka at the box office. Leading the race will be films like the Sanjay Dutt Akshay Kumar starrer 'Blue', followed by 'Aladin', 'Main Aur Mrs Khanna' and 'All The Best'.
The promos of 'Blue' have already hit the screens and it promises to be quite a thrilling experience. Eros too has started their promotions for Sujoy Ghosh's 'Aladin', which stars Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Ritesh Deshmukh. Following these films is Rohit Shetty's 'All the Best' and Prem Soni's Salman Khan Kareena Kapoor starrer 'Main Aur Mrs Khanna'. But there have also been rumors doing the rounds that the last two of these films will back out from a Diwali release. But nobody, as in no producer, seems to be in a mood to even concede the thought that they may back out from releasing their film on October 16. Prem Soni, the director of 'Main Aur Mrs Khanna' has already stated the stars of his film have blocked dates for the film's promotion 20 days prior to the film's release. As for 'All The best', its producers, Kumar Mangat and Ajay Devgan are all geared up to create a Diwali dhamaka at the box office. If all four films release as planned on October 16, it promises to be a Diwali full of dhamaka.