Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan lost their star value

A great change has taken place in Bollywood. Till date, it was the movie stars who dominated deals with the distributors; the bigger the stars, the higher the price tag of the movie but that is not happening any more. Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan, two of the top actors of Bollywood, are finding it very difficult to find distributors for their movies. Nobody is ready to pay the money the producers are asking for.

Hrithik Roshan’s Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara and Abhishek Bachchan’s Game have remained unsold. Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara is a multi-starrer movie. It has Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah. The movie had been shot in exclusive locations in Europe. The movie has been directed by Farhan Akhtar’s sister, Zoya Akhtar, and produced by Excel Entertainment, owned by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. Game, which stars Abhishek Bachchan and Kangna Ranaut has also been produced by Excel Entertainment.

News reports are saying that Excel Entertainment is looking forward to sell both the movies as twin-package deal for Rs.1 billion but the distributors are not ready to pay so much money for the movies.

An official from a top corporate house said, “Yes. This is true. Ritesh did come to us with a twin deal of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Game. Game did not excite us as a business proposition. We are not likely to discuss this with him any further.”

A senior official from PVR cinemas confirmed that Ritesh Sidhwani approached them to sell Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara and Game and said that this is a big deal which requires multiple discussion session and his company would thoroughly go through the entire deal but he admitted that the money is too high for the two movies which put them in a dilemma.

In the first half of 2010, Hrithik Roshan’s Kites Hindi movie and Abhishek Bachchan’s Raavan tanked at the box office. Both were big budget movies and had been marketed aggressively but both of them failed miserably. Anil Ambani’s Reliance BIG Pictures which bought the distribution rights of Raavan, lost huge amount of money.

Times of India reported that Sidhwani’s spokesperson sent them an SMS which says, “The deal is already closed and it is for three films, not two. We can’t give you the details now.”

This incident reveals that a new trend is rising in Bollywood. Gone are the days when a star’s name would determine the price of a movie.

Deepika Padukone is Krrish 2 Heroine

Deepika Padukone would be romancing with Hrithik Roshan in Krrish 2. From the beginning, Rakesh Roshan had been very much interested to rope in Deepika Padukone for his movies.

It is said that Deepika Padukone was first approached to play the female lead in Kites Hindi movie but Deepika Padukone opted out for she was not comfortable in doing intimate scenes in front of the camera. Then Barbara Mori was paired up with Hrithik Roshan and the rest is known to you all. The rejection had been a blessing in disguise for Deepika Padukone because Kites Hindi movie did miserably at the box office.

Anyway, the Roshan’s did not take Kites Hindi movie’s failure very well. Rakesh Roshan is again helming the role of director. The Father-son duo gave three hit movies- Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, Koi... Mil Gaya, and Krrish.

After directing Krrish, Rakesh Roshan took a break and went into movie production. He was the co-producer of Kites Hindi movie but after Kites Hindi movie’s failure, Rakesh Roshan has decided to bring out a sequel of the 2006 hit movie, Krrish and this time Deepika Padukone is replacing Priyanka Chopra as the female lead. It is said that Deepika Padukone became very happy to become part of Krrish 2. She instantly accepted the offer.

Krrish 2: Hrithik Roshan will put on the superhero mask once again

Once again, Bollywood would see its favorite superhero on the big screen. Yes, Hrithik Roshan will put on the mask and play Krrish once more.

Hrithik Roshan’s father, Rakesh Roshan, directed the first two movies of the Krrish series- Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish. He then decided to take a break from directing movies and went into production. In May 2010, Kites starring Hrithik Roshan and Mexican model and actress Barbara Mori released in theatres after lots of hypes and hooplas but the movie was a critical and commercial failure.

Anyway, the Roshans did not take the failure lightly and Rakesh Roshan wants to make sure that Hrithik Roshan regains his star image in Bollywood so he decided to make Krrish 2. A reliable source said, “The meetings for the sequel have already started. The Roshans have not taken the failure of Kites lightly and are making sure that the hit combination continues. Rakesh Roshan and Hrithik Roshan have done only three films together in ten years, which include Hrithik's debut film Kaho Naa... Pyaar hai, Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish.”

The source also reported that initially Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra had been chosen to direct the sequel but the plan has been changed now. Rakesh Roshan is now working on the scripts of the movie.

Aishwarya Rai and Kate Winslet in a L'Oreal TV Commercial

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and famous British actress, Kate Winslet, are coming together in a TV commercial for L'Oreal.

It will be a visual treat for people all over the world. The TV commercial will be shot in Italy by a famous director over a period of two days.

A reliable source said, “Aishwarya is very excited to meet Kate and moreover shoot with her for the ad. Ash is headed to aly sometime next week. The ad will be shot over two days.”

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been the brand ambassador of L’Oreal for a long time. She is also the brand ambassador of Longines. She is among the few Bollywood celebrities who endorsed some of the top International brands.

Currently, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is busy shooting Guzaarish with Hrithik Roshan. The movie

Guzaarish will be released in November, 2010. In the movie, Hrithik Roshan plays the role of a patient named Ethan who suffers from impairments of the motor and sensory functions of his limbs. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan plays the role a married nurse. The movie shows how an intimate bond grows between the two.

Rumor is out that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan sang a song for the movie written by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

This is not the first time Hrithik Roshan rendered his voice for a song. In Kites he also sang a song and it was well received by the audience.

Kites and Hrithik Roshan shine at box office

Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori starrer Kites collected Rs. 210 million on its opening day in India. It observed the second highest opening weekend collection in the country after Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots.

The movie also set a new record in terms of first weekend collection around the world.

Kites is the first movie of Hrithik Roshan that observed the biggest release. It had been released simultaneously in 2000 screens in India giving 10,000 shows daily and 500 screens in overseas. The movie had full house in 30 countries.

Reliance BIG Pictures, the distributor of the movie, aggressively marketed worldwide which created lots of curiosity among people. The company is very happy with the results.

Sanjeev Lamba, CEO, Reliance BIG Pictures said, “We are extremely delighted with the film’s initial response at the box office and expect it to set new benchmark for the Indian film business.”

Producer Rakesh Roshan is also very happy with the result.

In North America, Kites became the first to debut on the “Top ten list.” The movie was in number ten spot. The movie collected $1 million from May 21, 2010 to May 23, 2010.

It also opened at number five position at the UK box office.

The movie also received rave reviews from different news papers. The New York Times praised Hrithik Roshan’s acting and dancing skills. The San Francisco Chronicle referred Kites as a “beautiful opera.” Hollywood reporter said that Hrithik Roshan anchored the movie with solid believable performance and a palpable chemistry with his co-star.

Kites also earned an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes.com, a famous movie review aggregator website, based in the US.

Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites gets into Copyright Infringement Trouble

Hrithik Roshan’s upcoming movie, Kites, is scheduled to release in theatres on May 21, 2010 but the release might be postponed as Bihar Civil court ordered a stay on the release of the movie till May 24, 2010.

Laxmi Prasad of Sunbeam Holding filed a complaint against Rakesh Roshan in the court. The complaint says that Rakesh Roshan did not pay him Rs. 50 million for the copyright of the action sequences.

However, Rakesh Roshan told reporters that he had never heard the name of the person before. He said, “I have no idea who this guy is. He lives in some village in Bihar and claims that he has the copyright for the action of my film. How is it even possible? The action director of our film is Hollywood-based Spiro Razatos. There is absolutely no truth in this. My legal advisors are looking into the matter and the team is flying to Bihar today (Tuesday) and I hope the matter is resolved soon.”

Mr. Roshan also denied of making an “out-of-court settlement” with Laxmi Prasad and said that he had never heard of him or made any sort of negotiation.

Well, such issue of copyright infringement is not new in Bollywood in 2009, a script writer named Suchitra Bhatia claimed that the script of Yash Raj Films’ New York Hindi movie was actually written by her.

Aamir Khan starrer, 3 Idiots also faced similar controversy as it is said to have been inspired from popular novelist Chetan Bhagat.