Unknown facts about Bollywood film ‘Sholay’

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Amitabh Bachchan, Amjad Khan, Dharmendra, Gabbar Singh, Hema Malini, Jagdeep, Jaya Bachchan, ram gopal varma, Salim-Javed, Sholay

Some hidden facts about Bollywood film Sholay that hasn’t seen the light of the day… so far at least!

1.The film Sholay was a blue print commissioned secretly by the Indian audience and prepared by Salim-Javed to completely oust Ram Gopal Varma from the Hindi film industry (remember RGV’s Aag?)

2. Dharmendra’s water tank scene was the foundation stone laying process for Kent Water Purifier which his wife Hema Malini would take up endorsing in the near future.

3. Dhanno the horse’s chase sequence was a last minute addition to the film at the behest of Mrs. Menaka Gandhi who felt the other scenes portrayed horses only as villains’ henchmen oops henchhorses.

4. Jagdeep’s character in the film that of Soorma Bhopali – the village wood seller / jester who entertains the crowd with his stories – was in fact modeled on the lines of some of our infamous politicians suffering from foot-in-mouth syndrome.

5. The Jai – Mausi marriage proposal scene was incorporated to benefit those optimistic parents who think their bigdi huii yet dood se dhula hua aulad will turn a new leaf after marriage.

6. No Hindi film is complete without the eternal Baa like omnipresence of Ramlal aka Ramu Kaka – a mandatory requirement under the house workers’ union act; further under the aegis of governmental reservation act 1882 awarded to menial task workers.

7. Thakur’s role was designed to prove that you can’t keep a good sportsman down for too long if he wears spiked shoes. Bata Shoes backed off at the last minute from in-film advertising as it was a family shoe company and abhorred violence of any kind.

8. ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ was an expensive proposal video (due to absence of Youtube) to the evergreen and graceful dancer Helen by her future husband Salim Khan who incidentally happens to be one of the writer duos of the film.

9. The opening scene establishes that India has a vast railway network and despite that, the police still use the goods train to transport petty criminals to save tax payers’ money.

10. Back to the water tank sequence, this was incorporated to reiterate India to the western world as being a land of snake charmers and mystic sadhus. How else can you explain water in the tank in a village sans electricity if not for some kala jaadu by a mystic sadhu.

11. The angrezon ke zaamane ka jailor was an ode to the German ke zaamane ka Chaplin who greatly influenced the writers of Sholay with his peppy and hard hitting dialogues in his first talkie ‘The Great Dictator’ errrr… whatever.

12. Poor Jaya, because she got to motor mouth endless dialogues before her marriage takes place in the film, the sound recordist ran out of audio spools and the dialogue writers were forced to cut down on her figure of speech in rest of the film leaving her speechless thereafter… almost!

13. “Itna sannatta kyon hai bhai” was just a metaphor for the village sans television/radio – ghabrao nahi, ab achche din aayenge!

14. ‘Tumhara Naam Kya Hai, Basanti’ was Amitabh at his pre-KBC rehearsal – with just one option for his contestant Basanti and one life line in the form of Veeru. This rehearsal/survey helped the KBC producers to package their quiz show much better in the first installment of KBC some 15 odd years later.

15. ‘Kitne Aadmi The’ was one of those rare Algebra equations to feature in a Hindi film. Remember “Woh do the aur tum teen…” Now do the math…

16. India being forever fairness conscious, there was a surrogate fairness cream advertising with Gabbar’s dialogue, “Tera Kya Hoga Kaalia” indicating dark is bad. Subsequently, Kaalia went on to promote Tata Salt brand with his reply, “Sardar, maine aapka namak khaya hai.” (thus saving his mooh mein naamak waali life).  Today, we all know where Tata Salt and the fairness cream industry stand.

17. “Ab… goli kha…” was incorporated to state that iron in any form (bullet or Chawanprash) is good for health.

The producers ran out of funds at the fag end of the film shoot and hence couldn’t shoot any rice and wheat growing fields to establish Ramgarh ke vaasiyons as farmers… Fields did I say? Whatever!

If you guys know any more open hidden secrets related to Sholay, do share with your comments.

(First posted on fakingnews.com)

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Go Goa Gone

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Anand Tiwari, entertainment, Illuminati Films, International, ita Menon, Kunal Khemu, Pooja Gupta, Raj & DK, ram gopal varma, Sachin-Jigar, saif ali khan, Shor In The City, Tiwari, Vir Das

Indian Cinema and the horror genre was synonymous with the Ramsay Brothers and in recent years, crime master Ram Gopal Varma took over the reins and churned out his style of horror films – some good and some bad.

But lately new breed of directors have taken a step forward to give us new class of horror films that was earlier seen in their western counterparts. Zombie films are here to stay.

Go Goa Gone is India’s first Zombie film – and for those who are not aware of what a Zombie is, it’s the living dead creatures!

Directed by the duo Raj & DK (Shor In The City), the film is produced by Saif Ali Khan’s production company Illuminati Films and Eros International. The story is written by the director duo along with Sita Menon who had earlier penned their Shor In The City.

Saif Ali Khan stars as Boris a Zombie hunter in this crazy zombie comedy film that also has Kunal Khemu, Vir Das, Anand Tiwari and Pooja Gupta. According to Saif, Boris is not only tough and cool but also very funny. He has a good heart and is brave. He added that he was very excited to play Boris from the first time he discovered the character of a Zombie hunter.

The story goes: Kunal and Vir Das are good-for-nothing friends who decide to tag along with their friend Anand to Goa. There Vir Das falls for the charm of Pooja who invites the friends to a rave party on a remote island. And there all hell break loose as Zombies gatecrash the party. But Boris is there to save them or it seems!

From the look of the trailer, the film looks promising and is indeed a quality zombie/comedy film – a new mixed genre altogether. Everything about the film appeals and will strike a cord with the audience who love these kind of films. For Saif’s look as gun wielding Boris, well we like the change!

The film is set to release on 10^th May 2013

(Watch trailer)

Film: Go Goa Gone
Producer: Illuminati Films & Eros International
Director: Raj Nidimoru & Krishna D.K
Writer: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K & Sita Menon
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Khemu, Vir Das, Anand Tiwari and Pooja Gupta
Music: Sachin-Jigar

A R Rahman: The Musical Prodigy

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allah rakha, entertainment, indian film music, music recording studio, ram gopal varma

January 6 marks the birthday of one of India’s biggest gift to the music lovers around the country and the world at large. Allah Rakha Rahman who was born as A S Dileep Kumar in Chennai in 1996 to a musically affluent family, is now more known to the world simply as A R Rahman. A musical genius, Rahman has revolutionized Indian film music since his first film Roja, a Tamil language film way back in 1992.

As a youngster, Rahman was musically inclined and a good keyboard player. At a tender age of 11, he joined the famed music master Ilaiyaraaja as a keyboardist. Soon thereafter he started accompanying orchestras for their shows. Later, he won a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music in London and passed out with a degree in western classical music.

Back in India, he set up an ultra modern music recording studio; one of it’s kind in India. It was in 1992 that a chance meeting with Mani Ratnam saw him being introduced to the world of film music and he ended up composing music for his maiden Tamil language film Roja. From jingles to films, it was a giant leap for this down-to-earth man who over the years despite the steep rise up the ladder of success still stuck to his gentle ways.

Roja was an instant hit in both the Tamil version as well as the other dubbed versions and its music was hailed as the generation next music that appealed largely to the young generation. More films followed that established Rahman as a modern day musician who knew what the generation next preferred. It was Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela that marked Rahman’s entry in the Hindi language films. Rangeela too proved to be a massive hit. Rahman went on to score the music for Mani Ratnam’s debut Hindi film as well. This was Dil Se… way back in 1998. Though the film bombed at the box office, its music became a rage breaking various records on the way in spite of there being stiff competition that very year.

Over the years, Rahman continued to cater to both, the South film industry as well as the Hindi film industry and produced exceptional work of arts that had his trademark blend of fusion music. He has also been instrumental in working with new singers as well as established singers such as Lata Mangeshkar as well as compose music for lyrics written by great masters such as Javed Akhtar and Gulzar from Hindi film industry as well as other greats from the South film industry. It was in 2003 that Rahman ventured overseas and scored music for the Mandarin language film Warriors of Heaven and Earth. Four years later, he went on to co-score music for the Shekhar Kapur directed English film Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007. But it was Slumdog Millionaire in 2008 which gave him instant recognition in the western world. His composition ‘Jai Ho’ for Slumdog Millionaire became a national anthem the world over and he went on to win a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards for it making it a first for an Indian composer.

As a composer, Rahman constantly reinvented himself and way back in 1997, on India’s 50th anniversary of independence, he produced an album Vande Mataram that showcased the patriotic song in a different flavor. The album was an instant hit. Couple of years later, he along with some other performing artists performed with Michael Jackson in Munich for Michael’s concert, ‘Michael and Friends’. Over the years, Rahman has ventured from composing and singing for jingles to films, to composing for international stage productions to international films including collaborating with international music artists like Vanessa Mae among others.

Rahman even conducted worldwide sellout concerts around the world which has been stupendous success. In 2009, during the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office visit to the U.S., Rahman performed at the state dinner the U.S. President Barack Obama hosted for the Indian Prime Minister. Earlier last year in 2010, he was one of the 70 artists who performed at the ‘We Are The Word’ concert to raise funds to help the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Later last year, Rahman was honored to be assigned the task of composing the theme song for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi which was again a big success.

One thing that stands out with his musical compositions is his experiments with both traditional and contemporary musical instruments as well as digital electronic sounds. His love for fusion music is evident with the kind of works that he’s done over the years. The critics have described him as a man with a Midas touch, an innovative composer who’s completely changed the way contemporary music should be. His musical compositions over the years have given him countless film awards both at the national level as well as the international level including two Grammies for best compilation soundtrack album as well as best song for Slumdog Millionaire. The Indian government has rightly bestowed upon him two of the highest civilian awards – the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. 2011 sees him nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the English feature 127 Hours.

Rahman is not just a music composer, arranger, singer or a song writer. As a human being, he is also involved in various social causes over the years. In 2004, he took over as Global Ambassador to fight TB, a project initiated by WHO. He is actively involved with the ‘Save The Children’ foundation along with some other charitable trusts. His own A R Rahman Foundation was set up to eradicate poverty and helps the poor and underprivileged children get a firm footing in life. With his KK Music Conservatory in Chennai, he aims to establish a tradition in western classical music.

Time magazine has been right in summing up the man as the Mozart of Madras and that the music of Roja is rated among the top 10 movie soundtracks of all times, just signifies the greatness of the man. If this wasn’t enough, Rahman was also rated as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009 by Time magazine. With about 25 Filmfare Awards and 4 National Awards to his credit along with hosts of other national and international awards including being conferred the honorary doctorate by Trinity College of Music, London, Aligarh Muslim University, Anna University and the Middlesex University, his achievements and greatness definitely stands out. We for now wish that the musical genius continues to shower upon us his music compositions that shape our minds and souls for many more years to come.