5 major goof ups that Yash Raj Films made with Daawat-e-Ishq
Over the years, Bollywood has evolved with better visuals, bigger production budgets and actors taking more interest in their film's releases. The film business has, altogether become a different ball game. With crores of rupees at stake on the subsequent success of any release, the filmmakers have been going that extra mile to entice the audience. However, of late, one of the biggest production houses Yash Raj Films (YRF) has been on a slowdown of sorts, their recent release Daawat-e-Ishq being a stellar example of this.
1. Looking back, we reminisce on the Yash Raj Films that had caught the audiences' attention for decades and had provided high quality entertainment, complete with glossy visuals and extravagant, larger than life characters. But in the recent past, we have seen a gradual shift from the glittering domain of films to the more earthy and realistic cinema that YRF is aiming at. For example, the recently released Mardaani which featured a grittier feel as opposed to the glossy façade. It worked well for the Rani Mukerji starrer since the script also demanded it. However, similar kind of treatment being meted out to other films coming from the production house has certainly dented the audience's overall expectations, especially since the banner has been known for its larger than life movies.
2. Speaking of the audience's expectations, unlike earlier, there has been a drastic decrease in the anticipation levels among the film lovers for a YRF film's release. For instance, the last year's big releaseDhoom 3 had immense anxiety and anticipation among the audience, so much so, that every little bit of news about the film was instantaneously snapped up. But in the case of Daawat-e-Ishq, the general indifference of the audience killed the prospects of the film opening on a big note at the box-office.
3. Apart from this, factors like poor music and relative absence of hype around the film severely damaged its overall collections. Contrary to YRF's previous musical hits, the music of Daawat-e-Ishq failed to strike a chord with the audience and none of the songs became a chartbuster. This definitely curtailed the film's reach to a large extent. This was further coupled with the almost nonexistent hype around the film which went a long way in killing its prospects at the box-office, despite having known faces like Aditya Roy Kapur and Parineeti Chopra, both of whom have back to back hits to their names.
4. Daawat-e-Ishq is also probably the only Yash Raj film till now, to release within a month's time after the production house's last release Mardaani. There was a constant back and forth going on with the release date of the two films and eventually, Daawat-e-Ishq got a very small window of just 3 weeks, for its publicity.
5. However, the biggest drawback that we saw was the wrong positioning and marketing strategy YRF used to promote Daawat-e-Ishq. All the promotions of the film, including the title, suggested that it is a rom-com that deals with theme of food. One expected a light hearted film with a visual treat of food porn as Aditya plays the owner of a Mughlai restaurant, which is known for its appetizing dishes. The last leg of promotions to make this 'thandi' film hot among the young audiences too had the lead pair of Parineeti Chopra and Aditya Roy Kapur going on a 'Food Yatra' from Mumbai to Chandigarh. However, when the audiences went into the theatres, there was a completely different film dealing with the subject of dowry waiting for them. When you have a film that deals with a social evil like dowry which unfortunately still exists today, why try to cover it under a rosy pink glass and sell it as a light hearted rom-com? Thanks to this 'Food Yatra' the audiences took on to Parineeti and Aditya's love for food with a broader view thatDaawat-e-Ishq, as the name suggests, would eventually be a film about food, love and a grand feast, totally paradoxical to the film's theme.
Overall, despite being a decent watch featuring good actors, the film's convenient-lousy screenplay, poor music, unappetizing visuals and massively flawed marketing plan did a lot of damage to the film's prospects at the box-office.
We hope that from this experience, Yash Raj Films, now under the tutelage of Aditya Chopra, does find its way back to the shining emblem of glitz, glamour and larger than life films, something that we have loved and cherished over the years
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TV actor Rohit Khurana plans makeover with Bollywood debut
Mumbai: Actor Rohit Khurana has been known for essaying negative roles on the small screen, but for his Hindi film debut "Hotel Beautifool", he has chosen a comedy avatar in the pursuit of an image makeover.
"I have done southern films earlier. 'Hotel Beautifool' is my debut in Hindi films. The characters that I have played earlier have grey shades, and so it's a deliberate effort to do a comedy film. I want to prove to my viewers that if I can scare you, I can also make you laugh (too)," Rohit said.
Seen in TV shows like "Uttaran" and "Sasural Simar Ka", Rohit says "it's my conscious decision to break my image" via "Hotel Beautifool"
"I want to prove that I can do comedy though I have tough looks. It's a different look in the film and I am looking forward to make the audience laugh with this film," he added.
The actor is trying the comedy genre for the first time. For the film, he has shared screen space with the entertaining Johnny Lever, and Rohit found it to be a learning experience.
"I consider myself lucky to work with the legends. It's a learning experience to work with the legendary actor Johnny Lever. Comedy is all about timing and how well you connect with your co-star...that matters a lot," he said.
The first schedule of the film "Hotel Beautifool" has already been shot and the second schedule will be widely shot in Goa.
Directed by Sameer Iqbal Patel, the film also features Imam Siddiqui, Alisha Farrer, Jia Sharma and Brijendra Kala.
Why Deepika versus Bombay Times may not be a real war at all
If I were a gambling man (which I am not), I would offer odds of 10:1 that the controversy between the Bombay Times and Deepika Padukone is a fix, and bothBombay Times and Padukone will emerge winners and all the voyeurs of the drama, the twitterati, the columnists and the bloggers are just mugs in the game.
If you re-read the previous paragraph, you would notice that I’ve said Bombay Timestwice and made no mention of The Times of India.
Deepika Padukone.
That's the first inference that leads me to say that it's a fix, the fact that the battle is playing out in Bombay Timesand not in the main paper, The Times of India. If this was indeed war, the so-called defence that we saw this morning would have played out in the main paper and not in the supplement. When Bennett, Coleman and Company wants to make a statement on an issue that concerns a position, it’s up there on the front page, or, at the least, on a right hand nation page. The IRS stories play out there, as do the BARC or TAM stories. Why is this one in a supplement? While the story is about an actor, and, logically deserves to be in BT, the issue that is currently being aired (I hesitate to say debated) is (ostensibly) a far more important one: how media needs to cover and comment on women.
The second pointer to my belief that it is a fix is the fact that, in the red corner, ladies and gentlemen, we have Deepika Padukone and in the blue corner, we have Priya Gupta.
Deepika Padukone Vs Priya Gupta? That's not a battle of equals. That's hardly Fischer vs Spassky or Ali Vs Frazier. Hell, it's not even George Telegraph Vs Howrah Union.
If this were a real battle, we’d see some heavy lifters in the blue corner: The suits from the BCCL stable, the spokespersons who step in on industry issues, such as Ravi Dhariwal. If BCCL decided to maintain their church and state position, we'd see the editor of The Times of India pulling on his gloves.
The third provocation is BCCL’s ambitions and interest in Bollywood. Can BCCL afford to piss off the actor community, even as they have yielded ground to Wizcraft on the IIFA Awards and are playing catch up? If a body of actors stands up for Deepika and refuses access to the BCCL stable of newspapers and magazines, refuses to appear at BCCL events, refuses to engage with BCCL radio stations and TV channels, it’s a loss of no mean proportions – and that causes my cynicism and scepticism to increase.
I'll believe it's a real battle if we see a spokesperson from the management side making a statement on the issue. I'll believe it's a real battle if the story is discussed in the main paper tomorrow. And if it is a real battle, let's strap ourselves in for a long, bloody war, with all of Bollywood and feminists in one corner and the entire bouquet of BCCL products in the other.
That's when I'll believe it.
Till then, I’ll say well done, Bombay Times and Deepika, and well done, MediaNet. All of you have got great bang for the buck.
hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6uWMH9wMttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmoezmB7mI4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znC060-I1fc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnvqw1QM8t8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P2awa4VZwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQQptda8QnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S__ZI9SwK8Y
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