BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA

Hrithik Roshan tried it with Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Preity Zinta while Aishwarya Rai tried it with Salman Khan, Viveik Oberoi and Abhishek Bachchan. But fortunately they did it best with each other. We are talking reel here.
Aishwarya and Hrithik have never looked better with anyone else. From partners in hi-tech crime to a controversial couple in Indian history, from the fashionable dare to bare to the elaborate period costumes, Hrithik and Aishwarya have managed to crack their own chemistry and a bit of biology in two different eras. It was enough to prompt Ashutosh Gowariker to shoot an entire song with them just looking at each other in Jodha Akbar. Hrithik and Ash are popular on their own and when they come together it becomes so much bigger. The USP of Dhoom:2 was their chemistry and not the fact that it was a sequel according to Sanjay Gadhvi, the director of both Dhoom and it’s sequel. Their first and best film together was Dhoom:2 and their best song together was In lamhon ke daaman mein in Jodha Akbar.
The mustard fields of Punjab were made for them and so were the pyramids of Egypt and the markets of Chandni Chowk. But with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol on screen, you hardly notice the backdrop. All you do is drown in their chemistry. Their on screen love story, which began with Baazigar and will now be born again with Karan Johar’s My Name Is Khan, has been one of the glorious highs of recent Bollywood. Films will keep urging people to come and fall in love but not quite the way that Raj and Simran did. Karan Johar says that he did not cast Kajol and Shah Rukh together in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham just because they were his friends. He cast them together because they look great together and bring out the best in each other. Their best film together is Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge nd their best song together is Suraj hua maddham in K3G.

After Fida and Chup Chup Ke, there were smirks over the Shahid and Kareena real life romance getting lost in celluloid translation. That turned to gapes within minutes of Jab We Met. From friendship to romance to passion, the Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor chemistry was not something emerging out of any experiment in a lab. And to think that Jab We Met was when Jab They Split. According to Imtiaz Ali Jab We Met needed Shahid and Kareena. He did not cast them as a pair, rather as individual characters but their comfort with each other made their chemistry enviable. Their best film together is Jab We Met and their best song together is Tum se hi in Jab We Met.

This year audiences are getting to watch Roadside Romeo, made by Yashraj Films as part of a three film tie-up with The Walt Disney studios. The film in mainstream format is about a spoilt brat dog abandoned on the streets of Mumbai. It’s voiced by Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor and directed by the actor Jugal Hansraj.
Then later this year, there’s an international scale Sultan, The Warrior featuring superstar Rajnikanth as a mythological larger than life hero. The movie’s being made by Rajnikanth’s daughter at her Ocher Studios in Chennai and is co produced by Reliance Entertainment’s Adlabs Films.

Suddenly, everyone from corporate players like Percept Picture Company (PPC) and Reliance Entertainment to traditional studios like Yashraj Films, BR Films and Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions are thinking animation films. There’s star power too making its presence felt. Shah Rukh Khan is turning the lens on animation movies and Ajay Devan will act in the animation cum live action Toonpur ka Superhero. Even directors like Govind Nihalini are foraying into animation.
Animation is coming of age in India and it was the release of Hanuman in 2005 which led the way. It seems that there are huge plans and an estimated fifty to eighty films have already been announced. Even if a third gets made the numbers will be substantial. Take Percept for instance, which has planned to invest Rs250crore over the next three years. So even though the recent sequel Hanuman Returns failed at the box office, Percept plans to make three more Hanuman films with Toonz Animation, slated for a 2009, 2011 and 2013 release. Nagesh Kukunoor will be directing the first one, The Return Of Ravana.

Navin Shah, the CEO, P9 Integrated, a division of PPC, believes that Brand Hanuman is even bigger than the movies though it began when the first Hanuman film was made for less than Rs5crore, earned Rs20crore through theatrical and satellite releases. It became one of the biggest selling home videos besides exploiting merchandising. Percept has also tied up with animation studio DQ Entertainment to make three large films for the global market costing Rs100crore slated to be released in 2009 and 2010. Reliance Entertainments too has acquired studio Ainrights last year which it has renamed Big Animation and moved it to Pune from Bangalore. Reliance has invested Rs100crore in animation and they are focusing on IP creation which doesn’t stop at animation movies but extends to TV, mobile and the web. BR Films plans to invest Rs50crore in animation films over three years depending on how Paanch Pandavas fares. The Rs18crore movie in 3D is being directed by the Bhootnath director Vivek Sharma and is slated for a release in the summer of 2009.

Even though animation films face several challenges like the long time taken to develop them and the people crunch, the growth of this sector will be spurred by the expansion of multiplexes.