Fried Eye

That Kajol is a good actress is huge understatement. She is definitely among the best more

This issue of Fried Eye happens to come out on quite a day. Apart from being the 63rd Indian Independence day, the day also happens to complete 35 years of presence of Sholay in our lives. The film released on August 15, 1975. Interestingly there are many known and unknown stories that have been a part of the Sholay journey.

Even as people today are struggling to get budgets right and doing everything possible to keep business sensibilities intact, GP Sippy backed his son Ramesh Sippy as the latter went about shooting the film. Sholay was supposed to be an expensive film initially budgeted at Rs 1.5 crore. But by the time it was complete the budget had gone up to Rs 3 crore. While Ramesh Sippy admits that he did get nervous about the budget his father blindly trusted his son. “The film would have never been possible if the producer was not my father. He agreed on spending more money in love for his son!” Sippy told me once.

When Sholay released it was quickly packed away by the critics saying it was a bombastic mistake on GP Sippy’s part to invest such huge money on a movie which was neither Indian nor western. Sholay was indeed heavily inspired by movies like Akira Kurosawa’s Roshomon and John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven. The film was to become a flop. The biggest magazine slammed Sholay. In fact a trade analyst BK Adarsh, the father of now famous Taran Adarsh, had run a series of articles in his magazine for six weeks dissecting the movie and stating why it would be the colossal failure in Indian filmdom. Funnily enough even as the series came to an end, the film gathered pace at the box office – a pace that didn’t slow down for over a year. The movie went on to become the biggest hit of Bollywood ever and also ran at continuously at the Minerva theatre (Mumbai) for over five years, breaking all previous records.

Today Sholay stands tall among all multi-star movies. It made a small village called Ramanagara in Karnataka a tourist location, it gave directors like Ram Gopal Varma learning’s of a life time and has given audiences like us a great source of entertainment and inspiration. This is probably one film which probably every average Indian must have watched at least once.

Looking back at it the man behind Sholay – Ramesh Sippy admits, “It’s a lot of mixed feelings. It feels great, humbling and frightening. Frightening because once you have created something like this, it’s very difficult to recreate it. To take a film to that level that it becomes a myth and a part of India psyche, where all the characters have become legends… you don’t know. You certainly can’t plan a phenomenon.” How true is that! And who better to comment on the movie than Rajnikanth – one of the biggest stars of India cinema ever. “Sholay worked not because of one star or the huge budget for those times. Sholay worked because of the story and the connect with the audience, something that still exists and promises not to wither,” he says. Ram Gopal Varma concludes saying, “Why is it that Sholay doesn’t age? It just seems to stand still at the “pause” button of a Cinematic era for the last 35 years without aging one bit and I won’t be surprised if it stays that way for still another 35 years if not another 70 years.”

Some trivia about Sholay

1) Shatrughan Sinha was to play the character of Jai before Amitabh Bachchan stepped in on Dharmendra’s recommendation.

2) Danny Danzongpa was approached play Gabbar Singh but he declined the offer as he was doing another movie where he played a bandit.

3) Manmohan Desai and not Ramesh Sippy was not first director that writers Salim-Javed approached with the idea of the film.

4) Best Film in last 50 years from Filmfare, the same magazine which trashed the film when it released.

5) Held the record of biggest grosser for 15 years before Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge beat it.

6) Got just one award – The best editing award in the year of release.

7) The village Ramgarh was created in a village called Ramanagaram which lies between Bengaluru and Mysore.

8 ) The first schedule of the movie had to be cancelled as it was raining in Karnataka and it became impossible to shoot in the weather

9) It is referred to as the first Indian movie with stereophonic soundtrack. No earlier history of stereophonic sound is recorded in Bollywood.

10) It ran for 286 weeks straight (more than five years) in the Minerva theatre of Mumbai.

11) Gabbar Singh was modeled on a real-life dacoit of the same name who menaced the villages around Gwalior in the 1950s. He terrorized the local police. Any policeman captured by the real Gabbar Singh had his ears and nose cut off, and was then released as an object lesson to other policemen.

Friends accept you as you are. And they also bring you back on track whenever you manage to get off it. more

The business of Bollywood is a complex game. We have over 150 films releasing every year and only a few doing well at the box office. more

Even as the mad rush to Mumbai continues, the actress whose mother hails from Meghalaya talks about her love for the Shillong and Dehradun in contrast to the fast paced Maximum city more

Shyam Benegal talks on how cinema has changed over the time and how the media has played a major part in it.

As viewers we have often benchmarked feature films into two distinct sections – commercial and art house. More often than not,it is noticed that the so called “art house” cinema more

When you are a superstar like Aamir Khan with millions of fans all across the country and abroad, your birthday is quite special. Aamir celebrated his birthday on March 14, Sunday. And despite the fact that he had lost his father only a month back he was kind enough to actually let us in to his home when we reached there to wish him. Of course we were not alone. There was the huge brigade of entertainment media crowding into the home and also some fans – all obliged by the star as he spoke to them, signed autographs and also clicked photographs with them! more

Popular comic actor and director Satish Kaushik says he is done with comedy and is shifting to serious cinema forever

Satish Kaushik is no hero, nor is he is a star. And neither is he regarded one of the best directors we have. In fact out of the 13 odd films that he has directed only 4 have been able to strike a chord with the audience and one, Milenge Milenge, still lies unreleased since five years. However he is one of the best remembered faces when it comes to comedians in the industry. But this, says Kaushik, may change forever as he prepares to give up on comedy for ever.
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Oscar winner Resul Pookutty reveals plans for his NGO which looks at helping talents in film institutes

It is just over a year since Resul Pookutty walked the red carpet at the Oscars and made India proud when he went on to win the Best Achievement in Sound for Slumdog Millionaire. We caught him dancing with guests at his daughter’s birthday party and he says he is walking the red carpet again this year. “They were kind to invite me as a guest and I am going to be there. I am so looking forward to it!” he reveals to us.
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Love is in the air. Okay, we can overlook the love lost between Shah Rukh Khan and Shiv Sena because this is supposed to be the Valentine’s week after all. And I am sure it would be terrible to not celebrate it in style… and with movies. Movies have always been a great way to celebrate. No secrets that movies are for the love birds when it comes to spending some time with each other. Sitting cozy by each other, one hand into popcorn and the other in the partner’s hand and a lovely movie taking us into a world we would fancy…
And even though My Name is Khan could possibly be your choice of movie for the week for its lovely message or for the love story, we dug into the history of Hindi cinema to find some movies which we believe are some of the best told love stories in the industry – movies we are sure could leave you feverishly wanting to fall in love all over again and to be one of those characters. Read and hopefully you lay your hands on some of the DVDs and watch them till we come up with our next issue. That one solves two purposes – first you are entertained, second think about us (We love the second reason better).
So here we go… and kindly note that this isn’t a certified list of best movies, nor is it in any particular order.
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The actor, who was voted the ‘Star of the Millennium’ talks about his relationship with the media and how it has gone from being bad to good at times in his 40-year old career.

The excitement to know what is happening in someone else’s life is almost an integral part of most human minds. The desire gets stronger when the life that we want to know about is that of a celebrity. And it gets ever stronger when the celebrity in question is Amitabh Bachchan. Dozens of media personnel follow every minute of this superstar’s life to bring to the reader more news on him – the ones that he has not already pasted on his blog.

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As Salman Khan gears up for the release of his ambitious Veer we catch up with him for his views on topics right from stardom to state of Indian politics, apart from of course Veer! Read on

Ask any celebrity and be sure he will brag miles about loving every bit of the stardom he rides on. And that he does not mind all the attention that comes along. For many of them, a line from Baazigar where Shah Rukh Khan says ‘Kuch Paane Ke Liye Kuch Khona Parta hai’ is survival’s most essential trait. But then exceptions are what make a rule perfect and Salman Khan has always been ‘the exception’. A part of the formidable Khan-trio Salman has always admitted that he was never an actor. And the same attitude continues when he talks about his much talked about star status.

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Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Genelia D’Souza, Mohnish Bahl, Parikshit Sahni
Director: Ken Ghosh
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

Rating:

Ken Ghosh returns after a five year hiatus. His last movie Fida didn’t do any good at the box office. However expectations hardly diminished considering his first film Ishq Vishk was such a resounding success and loved by the youth. I am sure people are yet to get over dialogues like ‘Saloni mere saath chaloni’ and ‘Poly Pereira tu meri main tera’ or for that matter the loveable college kid Rajeev Mathur and Mambo so well played by Shahid Kapoor and Vishal Malhotra respectively, in their debut performances. Shahid returns with Ken Ghosh in Chance Pe Dance but you certainly fall in Ishq with this venture.

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Cast: Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Dalip Tahil, Iravati Harshe, Anu Menon, Navniit Nisshan and Ranvir Shorey

Director: Saurabh Shukla

Music: Ankur Tiwari

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Hangovers, all of us will agree, are something that tends to leave behind quite a headache and sometimes more. And trouble could just increase if you are struck by some forbidden beauty, especially if you are a married man. ‘Raat Gayi Baat Gayi?’ takes you through one such situation in a rather light hearted manner. And it is complete with Indian sensibilities. So much that it is quite predictable actually. But then it is enjoyable at the same time.

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Cast: Celina Jaitley, Abhimanyu Singh, Farooque Shaikh

Director: Mahesh Nair

Producer: Nari Hira

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There is a scene in Accident On Hill Road when a small boy and his mother find that a person is stuck on the windshield of car parked inside the garage of the neighborhood bungalow. They understand that they should do something to save the man and hence the woman calls up her carpenter husband. That was one of the times I forced myself to a laugh. A carpenter to get a body out of a car is quite an idea! Sadly though the carpenter in the film decides it is none of his or his family’s business. Hence the trauma of the man stuck in the windshield continues, and so does our trauma of watching the film.

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Cast: Rishi Bhutani, Padmini Kolahpuri, Om Puri, Govind Namdeo, Naseeruddin Shah, Disha Pandey, Krishan Khatra

Director: Rakkesh Chaturvedi ‘OM’

Producer: Goldy

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What a week! Actors like Naseeuddin Shah, Om Puri, Farooque Shaikh all wasted! While Farooque Shaikh may be feeling cheated in Accident On Hill Road, I am feeling worse cheated after watching Bolo Raam, and only wondering what made an actor like Naseeruddin Shah take that film, especially when he hardly had a role in it.

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