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April 11, 2000

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Send this column to a friend Star dancer

Govinda In Hadh Kar Di Aapne, Govinda once again proves what a terrific dancer he is. The grace with which the guy dances cannot be matched by any other hero. Even Rani Mukherjee's matching panache, Anand Raaj Anand's music and the song picturisations are very good.

I had an opportunity to see the songs last week. They are so good that one feels their popularity today does not match their potential. Despite T-Series doing a good job with the film's television publicity, the songs have yet to reach the peak of their popularity.

Though producers Rajeev Anand and Rakesh Malhotra and director Manoj Agarwal will find solace in the fact that their songs are immensely likeable, I feel they have rushed with the release of the film. After all, April 14 is just round the corner.

A release at least three weeks from now would have been more desirable. The songs could then have had the time to cash in on their popularity. And the film would have had a better opening than the one it can now hope to get. A bit of jaldbaazi, this!

Sanjay DuttNo warning from the deadly Dutt

As far as Sanjay Dutt is concerned, it's another wicket down. The opening of Baaghi was dull, to say the least. While its action content may see it touching the average mark in one or two circuits, the film will be a loser in the rest of the country.

Which makes me wonder, why didn't Sanjay call a press conference and warn people against seeing Baaghi and Khauff? If he could do it for Jung, why not for these films? Is he proud of them? Or is he being plain vengeful in taking a purely professional fight -- between him and the producer of Jung -- to the public?

Prints reach late

Some of the prints of Baaghi, which was released this week, reached certain stations late. As a result, the first show of Baaghi on the first day in Jaipur started late. The prints also reached Jodhpur, Alwar and Kota late. Although no show of the film had to be cancelled in Indore (C I), the 12 noon shows in Bhopal and Gwalior had to be rescheduled.

Mithun ChakrabortyStars squirm in embarrassment

In incidents unrelated to each other, three stars were faced with embarrassing situations last week.

Mithun Chakraborty lost face at a charity soccer match held between Mithun XI and Saurav (Ganguly) XI at Calcutta on April 2. He had organised it to collect funds for Aamra, his social welfare project. Announcements indicated that stars from both Bollywood and the Indian cricket team would participate in the match. The result? A sellout crowd!

Unfortunately, Mithun did little to ensure actual participation of the stars. The absence of favourites like Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, Sachin Tendulkar, Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar disappointed the crowds so much that they pelted plastic bottles on the stars present on the field. Who included Govinda, Akshay Kumar, Gulshan Grover, Jackie Shroff and Rani Mukherjee.

The show was Mithun's second loss of face. Just recently, he withdrew from the Rajya Sabha elections at the last minute when he discovered he was not the unanimous choice of all the political parties in West Bengal.

In another incident, Salman Khan misbehaved with the press in Ahmedabad, where he had gone on April 2 to participate in a stage show. The show organiser had invited the local press to meet Salman at 1 pm, but the actor didn't show up for over an hour.

The press meet was rescheduled for 7 pm, but it did not go very smoothly. When the press asked the actor why he had kept them waiting in the afternoon, Salman answered them rudely. When they hinted at a boycott of the press meet, Salman announced that he did not care for the press but cared only for the public which had made him a star. He then offered members of the fourth estate free tickets to the show, but the press decided to keep away.

Then it was the turn of Kamal Haasan, who had a tough time in Delhi on April 5, when he participated in a day long seminar on History And Cinema, organised at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. He analysed his film, Hey! Ram, before replying to a volley of questions raised by a formidable array of scholars.

Frank and honest, Kamal confessed he belonged to the generation of Gandhi-bashers. He said he hadn't shown Shivaji as the inspiration of the RSS because he didn't want his film banned in Maharashtra. He also said he had made a commercial film, not an art film, and hence had included five songs as well as other commercial ingredients.

He made it clear that, before the film was released, he had to answer a number of questions raised by a number of parties. Even after the film's release, his effigies were burnt at some places.

Salman KhanTalking of Salman...

Is Salman going the Mithun and Dharmendra way? Reportedly, he often reports drunk on the sets! When asked to memorise his dialogues, he snaps at the unlucky assistant director assigned to him. And that, apparently, is not all.

He disregards the instructions of the choreographer and the director and does what he feels is good. Nobody, presumably, has the guts to question his behaviour. He even resents changing costumes when not in a mood to do so and asks his director, "Will the audience be looking at me or my clothes?"

Phew! History is witness to what has happened to stars who become too big for their boots. But, then, not everyone has a strong grounding in history, wot!?

A look at the week

**Ratings based on box office collections and cost of the film**
Rating Film Production House Verdict Position Last Week No Of Weeks Since Release
1 Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge Baba Films Average (Losing in some circuits) 1 3
2 Baaghi Triple Aar Movies Losing (Average in a couple of circuits) New 1
3 Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai Film Kraft Superhit 2 13
4 Hera Pheri A G Films (P) Ltd Losing (Average in Bombay, C P Berar) 3 2
5 Badal Aftab Music Industries Average (Above average in North, Bengal, Bihar) 4 9
6 Pukar (Tax-free in some states) S K Films Enterprises Average (Above average in Bombay, South, C P Berar due to tax exemption) 5 10
7 Krodh Ashok Honda Productions Average 6 4
8 Hum Saath-Saath Hain Rajshri Hit 8 23
9 Jaanwar Shree Krishna Intl Above average 7 16
10 Khauff Chirag Arts Flop 9 6

Komal Nahta edits the popular trade magazine, Film Information.

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