SRK, Farah Khan all set to storm the Indian Movie Industry with "Om Shanti Om" - A Cool Musical Retro

The trailers of ‘Om Shanti Om’ have been making the rounds and has grabbed the attention of the nation. Everyone wants to know more about this Shahrukh Khan movie after the huge success of 'Chak De India'. To add to this, the curiosity factor about the next big thing in Bollywood Deepika Padukone is also making heads turn.
Farah Khan’s 'Om Shanti Om' is a tribute to the psychedelic 70s and 80s! Who can forget the 70s and 80s! As the lights went out in the theaters and the credits started to roll, the proceedings used to start with ‘taali maar’ (clapworthy) couplets like, ‘Fanoos ban ke jiski hifazat hawa kare, Who shama kya bujhe jise roshan khuda kare’.The movie says the director Farah will bring back the memories of the 70s and 80s.It is obvious that the movie recreates scenes from a few blockbusters of the 70s and 80s, and Shahrukh imitates a few superstars from the era!
In addition to SRK and Deepika Padukone, a host of other stars will make their appearance in the movie. Watch out for Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Dharmaendra, Tushar Kapoor, Kajol, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji, Urmila Matondkar, Shilpa Shetty, Juhi Chawla, Shabana Azmi and Karisma Kapoor in 'Om Shanti Om'!
'Om Shanti Om' is directed by Farah Khan. The film is produced by Shahrukh Khan's production banner Red Chillies Entertainment and the film stars Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Shreyas Talpade in lead roles.

‘Happy Days’ Review: A Nostalgic Retreat

Film: Happy Days

Rating: 3.75/5

Cast: Varun, Nikhil, Rahul, Vamshi, Tamanna, Gayatri Rao, Sonia, Monali, Kamalini etc

Dance: Swarna, Noble, Prem Rakshit

Camera: C Vijaya Kumar

Lyrics: Vanamali, Veturi, Venkatesh Patwari

Music: Mickie J Mayor

Direction-Production-Screenplay-Dialogue: Sekhar Kammula

Release Date: 28th September 2007 (USA) , 2nd October (India)

It’s like watching a college campus video. It’s the pleasant story of boys and girls studying in a college. Sekhar Kammula once again touches the receptive channels of the audiences pleasantly.

Story:Four boys Chandu (Varun) , Rajesh (Nikhil), Tyson (Rahul) and Shankar (Vamshi Krishna) and four girls Madhu, Appu, Sravanthi and Sangeetha are the new admissions in an engineering college, CBIT to specify. The entire story is how the relations develop among these bys and girls in the four years of their studies. The love, hatred, happy days and sorrow moments and all fall on the silver screen till the grand finale. That’s only for watching but cannot be read.

Performances: The performances of all young boys and girls are impressive. The main heroine Tamanna is fresh and fair. Her body language resembles Sada to some extent. Gayatri Rao also did a fair job as Appu. Sonia, who played Sravanthi is hot and ‘intersting’. Monali Choudary who played Sangeetha is sufficient.

Coming to guys, Rahul did a lot and his diction is typical. Nikhil and Chandu are appropriate to their roles. Vamshi did his best.

Kamalini Mukherjee appears in the role of a glamorous English teacher and that’s just for a pleasant break.

The entire credit in giving characterizations for all these artistes goes to Sekhar Kammula. He is the man behind carving this long story of four pairs. Screenplay matters very big in such films and the responsibility falls immense in making audiences sit to the seats till the end.

Two songs Arare… and Paadametu Paduthunnaaa… are very interesting. Lyrics by Veturi, Vanamali and Venkatesh Patwari are good. Micki J Mayor’s music has a separate mark for itself.

The film is good on a whole but it pleases only the audiences who are aware of campus education. It is not a right dish for typical mass audiences anyway. It appeals for multiplex audiences, educated crowds and above all for US-Andhrites.

Analysis:Don’t miss the film for the amount of nostalgia it has. One can go back to his lovely college days. And for students it’s a lively celluloid story where they can see themselves on screen. All the feelings from college humor to romance to sentiment…everything can be seen in the flow of 2 and half pleasant hours. The film proved to be an entertainer by the stuff in it. But if you expect some non stop humor and rib tickling scenes, that’s not there. It’s a neat film made in Kammula’s style. The artistes are new but they have excelled in their roles. The film is worth watch by all sets of audience.

Fist half of the film goes with introduction of characters. Second half appears to be little dragged but that’s what happens when four love stories are to be concluded. The scenes sometimes are routine in second half and seldom has the tempo graph suffered ups and downs.

(SiraSri can be reached at sirasri@gmail.com)

Happy Days Gala Opening!!!

Sekhar Kammula’s movies have always been well received by NRIs. As a tribute to NRIs, this time Sekhar is releasing Happy Days in USA on 28th September before India release (Oct 2nd ). Happy Days is releasing with a bang in Dallas, in Hollywood theaters (Touring Talkies) , Irving. It is opening on 2 screens with 4 shows on friday ( 6 PM, 8 PM, 9:30 PM, 11 PM). The capacities are 425 and 375 for these 2 screens. With 2 shows in each of these screens a combined capacity of 1600 can be accomodated on first day. A total of 22 shows are scheduled for the opening week in Dallas which is the highest in United states for Happy Days. USA Major cities shows are as following for the first week.

Dallas – 22 shows

Bay area - 18 Shows

Atlanta - 17 shows

New Jersey – 16 shows

Detroit - 13 shows

Virginia -10 shows

For non USA readers, on an average opening week’s ticket price is $10. Typically in major cities decent movie can get any where from 1000 to 4,000 patrons for the opening week. Dallas is the fast growing telugu market in USA and watch for this space for first week numbers.

Sekhar Kammula’s Dallas fans can buy Happy days tickets on http://www.gohollywood.com/.

Sekhar got every thing right with Happy Days

Telugu industry is blessed to have directors like Sekhar Kammula who is humble and honest. In a recent interview, Sekhar admitted openly that Godavari is a budget failure. When did we hear any thing like that from a director? When did we hear last that a Director refused to take any fee for a movie because the movie went over the budget?

Sekhar's movies are about how small things in life bring immense happiness.

Sekhar got Swarna Kamal Award in best debut director category for "Dollar Dreams"(1999). His "Anand" (2004) was a commercial success. Anand brought him 7 Nandi Awards including best director, best film and best actress etc. He sold Anand at low prices before it became a hit. Anand distributors made merry and are one of the happiest bunch till date. Godavari did well in A centers and extremely well in USA .

Though Anand has created a trend and Godavari earned good appreciation, Sekhar finally got every thing right with Happy Days. Here is how he got it right.

Happy Days:

• Made in just 9 months ( Jan 2007 to September 2007)
• Talent search through Radio Big FM and websites
• All new cast - minimal fee
• Corporate tie-ups from Day one- Pantaloons, BIG FM and BIG Music.
• Planned and executed well with a tight budget of 3 crores.
• Sold overseas rights for 70 lakhs before the release.
• Top Producer/distributor Dil Raju bought outright distribution rights for whole Andhra Pradesh 1 month before the release. He paid a fancy price and sekhar made a table profit.
• Prakash Raj bought tamil remake rights for 25 lakhs yesterday.
• He is yet to sell satellite rights which may fetch him about one crore.
• Audio is declared as a melodious hit.
• First time a telugu movie is releasing in USA 4 days before India and thats shows sekhar's tremondous confidence about his product .
• It has created a big hype in USA for his film and people are waiting to watch happy days

There is a saying, ‘Good things happen to good people’. He is a successful producer/director before Happy Days release. Who else deserves this better than Sekhar Kammula!!

We wish him and Happy Days the best. May good cinema prevail!!

Shahrukh Khan goes topless!!!

Shahrukh Khan goes topless for the first time in Om Shanti Om and it's hard to miss his bare-chested glory, six-pack abs and a lean, mean and toned body. Shahrukh Khan took tips from Salman Khan but will this ever turn into competition? SRK in now in league with sexy actors like John Abraham and Hrithik Roshan. Feast your eyes on this 'hot & sexy' SRK.

Can you identify this glowing beauty?

It is not 'she' but 'he'. Yes, he is hero Vikram. It's a still from his upcoming film 'Mallanna (dubbed version of Kandaswamy). Vikram is playing in 5 different roles in this new film. Yes, it's 'Half Dasavataram'.

Rajinikanth's statue at Madame Tussaud's museum

Rajnikanth's wax statue will be unveiled at Madame Tussaud's museum ,London this December. Rajnikanth will be leaving for London in August for a session with the Madame Tussaud's sculptors. The life-size wax statue will be opened to public during Christmas. With this, Rajnikanth joins other Indian superstars Shah Rukh Khan,Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai at the wax museum of Madame Tussaud's London. The museum, every year, unveils a total of just 15 statues.

Megastar's special appearance in Don?

Lawrence, who managed to rope in Megastar and Nagarjuna for special appearances in Style, has approached Megastar for a special role in Naarjuna's Don. Besides direction Lawrence is also composing music for Don. And he also plays a full-length character in Don. If the sources are believed Megastar, who is also a close friend to Nagarjuna has agreed or doing the special appearance.

Launching the legend's son - Chirutha

Great India Films acquires most anticipated movie of the decade 'CHIRUTHA'

A star is born every year, But A Mega Star is born only once in 20 years....

Good movies come every year, But Great movies comes occasionally, now it's the time for one of the greatest movies of the decade.

Yes, you got it right, the month of September 2007 is the time for a New Mega Star to be born again and we are going to witness the Grand and Gigantic entry of RamCharan Tej with the most anticipated & high voltage movie of the decade "CHIRUTHA".

Chirutha, Written and Directed by Puri Jagannadh who is riding high with back-to-back Industry Blockbusters 'POKIRI' and 'DESAMUDURU', CHIRUTHA is a perfect follow up for this excellent director.

Chirutha, Produced by Mr.Aswani Dutt who delivered many blockbusters in his 25 years of film making.

Great India Films in association with Vyjayanthi Movies is proud to announce that they are the right holders of Chirutha Theatrical exhibition and DVD in Overseas market.

Great India Films would like to Thank Mega Star Padma Bhushan Chiranjeevi Garu and Aswani Dutt garu for entrusting Great India Films to market Chirutha in overseas.

Great India Films will make sure that every effort will be made to make Chirutha the perfect entry for RamCharan Tej in Overseas territories.

Great India Films would also like to Thank Puri Jagannadh Garu for his continuous support and showing trust on us after POKIRI.

Nagarjuna is back as "Don"

Yuva Samrat Nagarjuna to become “Don” in 2007

Director-star duo Lawrence and Yuva Samrat Nagarjuna pair up again for 2007 megafilm Don. The film, produced by ML Kumar Choudary on the Sri Keerthi Creations banner, will be released in September by distributor Kosmic Films. Kosmic Films, which is also distributing and marketing the blockbuster Shankar Dada Zindabad! starring Mega Star Padma Bhushan Dr. Chiranjeevi, will be handling cinema and DVD release in all worldwide markets outside of India.

Lawrence and Nagarjuna collaborated previously on the hit film Mass, and return to work together here on a new Don film. The film features a novel plot and is unrelated to the 2006 Bollywood film Don starring Shahrukh Khan. On top of directing, Lawrence plays a supporting acting role as the brother of Don, and additionally is featured as music director. Don promises comedic dialogue and strong writing in addition to its star-studded cast, which includes Anushka and Priyamani as the female leads.

Kosmic Films will be bringing the film to all markets outside of India, with full rights to both cinema and DVD distribution. Known for its strong portfolio of Telugu films, most recently Chiranjeevi’s Shankar Dada Zindabad, Kosmic Films aims to bring quality South Indian and Bollywood films into worldwide markets, with offices in India, Asia, Europe, and North America. Kosmic Films also plans to expand its business offerings to include high quality DVD releases. Sridhar will be heading distribution and marketing of the film worldwide. Exhibitors may contact Sridhar for more information regarding screening Don in their respective cities or countries.