There will be no Raajneeti sequel Prakash Jha is working in Aarakshan

Director Prakash Jha is now basking under the success of his latest movie Raajneeti. Released on June 4, 2010, the movie is still drawing audience to the theatres.

Because of the immense success of the movie, rumor spread out that the director might be making a sequel of the movie titled Raajneeti 2 but Jha denied the claim outright. He said, “I’m not even thinking of a sequel.”

The director is now working on his next project titled Aarakshan which means “Reservation of Opportunities.”

Ajay Devgan, Manoj Bajpai and Amitabh Bachchan are going to act in the movie. Ajay Devgan, who is the favorite actor of Prakash Jha, will do the lead role in the movie. Earlier, Devgan-Jha duo, gave us great movies like Gangaajal (2003) and Apaharan (2005).

Manoj Bajpai envy’s the rapport between Ajay Devgan and Prakash Jha. He jokingly said, “And there’s little I can do about this, except stand at a distance and feel envious about the chemistry they share.”

Manoj Bajpail played the antagonist, an evil politician, named Veerendra Pratap in Raajneeti. His performance had been widely appreciated both by the critics and audience. Aaraskhan will be his comeback movie.

Both Prakash Jha and Manoj Bajpai are excited to be working with Amitabh Bachchan. For a long time, Prakash Jha has been looking forward to do a movie with the megastar of Bollywood. After nine years, Manoj Bajpai will be working with Amitabh Bachchan. He worked with Amitabh Bachchan in Aks in 2001.

A Twitter message said that Katrina Kaif will play the female lead but Prakash Jha said that nothing has been finalized yet. Katrina Kaif is now busy shooting in Spain for her upcoming move.

Katrina Kaif and Raajneeti rock the box office

Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti hit the jackpot at the box office. The multi-starrer political thriller had a great opening weekend in the theatres both in India and overseas. The movie was released in fewer screens compared to Housefull and Kites.

Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori starrer Kites was released in more than 200 theatres while Raajneeti was on 124 theatres.

The movie set a record of second biggest opening after 3 Idiots which released last year. However, a major contributor behind 3 Idiots’ success was that the movie was released during Christmas and Monday was a holiday.

Rediff.com reported that Raajneeti collected Rs.105 million on the first day and somewhere between Rs.330-350 million in the opening weekend. The production cost of the movie was Rs.550 million. The movie will have a great collection during its theatrical run as there are no other major movie releases next weekend. This means the movie will have fourteen days of theatrical run.

Raajneeti also received good response in other urban centers and in North America with occupancies higher than 80%.

Normally, Hindi movies based on politics do not do very well in the U.S. but Raajneeti changed all that. According to distributor UTV, The movie had a great opening weekend in the U.S collecting $9,17,000 in three days. The movie also had the “highest per screen average”-$7395. However, distributor is afraid that the movie would not add significant number of audience in the US.

Raajneeti took the number 11 spot on the box office charts. Shrek Forever After was at the top place collecting more than $25 million.

Kites opened at number 10 position in the US box office three weeks ago and collected about $2 million in the U.S. UTV hopes that Raajneeti would do better than Kites in the upcoming weeks.

Raajneeti is Prakash Jha’s first successful movie in North America. His last movie, Apaharan, was released in 2005. Throughout his career, the director earned name and fame for making serious political movies such as Damul (1984)

Parinati (1988), Mrityudand (1997), Gangaajal (2003).

Raajneeti also stars Katrina Kaif, the top actress of Bollywood. In the movie, she plays the role of a female politician. Her involvement in the movie led many people to believe that Prakash Jha is going to make a movie on the Gandhi-Nehru family. Repeatedly, Prakash Jha denied that claim. He said that the story of the movie is based on a part of Mahabharata, the great epic. Few American movie critics also opined that the movie has some resemblances with Francis Ford Coppola’s movie, Godfather.

Rajneeti Hindi movie review

From the beginning, Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti has been generating controversies. Many believed that the movie was based on the Gandhi family of India. A social worker named Naseem Khan requested the Bombay Civil court to stay the release of the movie. The court said that it would wait for the report of the Censor board. The Censor board cleared the movie.

A script writer, named Yogendra Konkar, claimed that the script of Rajneeti is based on his own script with a similar title, “Rajniti: A Political Saga.” However, the high court even cleared Rajneeti of the accusation.

According to Jha’s lawyer, Jha’s script was registered with Indian Motion Pictures Association in December 2008 while Konkar’s script was registered in July 2009.

Then rumor of fight between Jha and Nana Patekar fought in the sets. Then there was the Censor Board controversy. To get U/A certificate Prakash Jha had to cut off some violent scenes and reference to homosexuality and a significant portion of the lovemaking scene between Katrina Kaif and Arjun Rampal. Finally, there was the anonymous warning letter from a Congress party worker.

The waiting is over and Rajneeti has been finally released in theatres. So how is the movie? It is a gripping political thriller and no it has no reference to any politician and definitely not Sonia Gandhi which had been widely speculated before.

Title: Rajneeti

Producer: Prakash Jha

Executive Producer / Co-Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

Director: Prakash Jha

Star Cast

Nana Patekar...... Brij Gopal

Ajay Devgan...... Sooraj Kumar

Ranbir Kapoor...... Samar Pratap

Katrina Kaif...... Indu Pratap

Manoj Bajpai...... Veerendra Pratap

Arjun Rampal...... Prithviraj Pratap

Naseruddin Shah...... Bhaskar Sanyal

Sarah Thompson Kane...... Sarah Jean Collins

Barkha Bisht...... Item Number

Nikhila Tirkha...... Samar Pratap's Mother

Darshan Jariwala

Chetan Pandit

Shruti Seth

Kiran Karmarkar

Daya Shanker Pandey

Shereveer Vakil

Vinay Apte

Rajneeti mainly takes its story from Mahabharata, the great Indian Epic. Add with it a little sprinkle from Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather. Rajneeti is about the struggle between two cousins- Prithviraj Pratap (Arjun Rampal) and Veerendra Pratap (Manoj Bajpai). Veerendra believes that it is his birth right to become the leader of the party and he would get it at any cost. To achieve his goal, he teams up with Sooraj Kumar (Ajay Devgan), a powerful Dalit leader .

Samar Pratap (Ranbir Kapoor) never thought of becoming a politician. He went abroad for higher education and dreamed of becoming a lecturer but fate had different plans for him. He ended up into politics and becomes one of the top players. With Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar) on his side, Samar learns the inner workings of politics and becomes a master strategist.

Arjun’s character is related to Bhim while Samar’s is Arjun, Veerendra is Duryodhona and Brij Gopal is Lord Krishna. Like Michael Corleone, Samar takes over his father’s empire and becomes the top guy.

The great thing about Rajneeti is that it has a tight script. In the first half, you get acquainted with the characters and the inner workings of the system. By the second half, you get a clear understanding who is what. There are no song and dance sequences. From the start, the director takes a non-nonsense approach. There are multiple layers of stories and one unfolds after the quickly.

On the bad side, it is a long three hour movie which means you might end up having a headache. Plus, the movie demands serious attention.

Prakash Jha did a very good job with the movie. Over the years, he made some great political movies. Rajneeti is just another feather to his crown of success.

Raajneeti director Prakash Jha is not worried about Congress party leaders

It looks like, controversies surrounding Prakash Jha’s upcoming movie, Raajneeti, will not die down so soon.

Recently, the director received a letter from a Congress party worker. In the long letter, the worker warned him not to derogate the “Gandhi family.” The party worker did not mention his name.

However, Prakash Jha is not worried about it at all. To him, it is just another “over-zealous” party worker who is desperate to get noticed. He said, “Why give such people importance? Please don’t mention his name. I simply don’t react. When I got the letter from the party worker, who shall go unnamed, I read it and tore it up. And, I called up the gentleman and said, 'If you think I’m going to respond in writing to your letter so that you can get mileage and publicity out of it then you’re mistaken. I want to thank you for your concern. But I’ve nothing to say to you….”

Jha decided not to respond to any political workers. He said that if the Congress party heads have any problem with the movie, they should come and see it.

This is not the first time, the director faced such allegations. Earlier, a social worker named Naseem Khan filed a case against Raajneeti in the Mumbai civil court. Mr, Khan requested the court to stay the release of the movie as it would derogate the image of Congress Party President, Sonia Gandhi. The court said that it would give his verdict after the report of the censor board.

The good news is the Censor Board cleared Raajneeti. It declared that the characters in the movie have no resemblances with any politician.

However, the Censor Board, at first, was not ready to give the movie a U/A certificate. The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal gave the movie a U/A certificate after the directed deleted some sequences. The movie had some violent scenes and reference to homosexuality. In addition, there was this love-making scene between Katrina Kaif and Arjun Rampal and almost half of the scenes had been cut off.

Censor Board clears Raajneeti after Prakash Jha chopped off some sequences

Finally, Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti got a U/A certificate from the Censor Board.

The Censor board referred the movie to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal which gave it a U/A certificate which means, “Unrestricted Public Exhibition with parental guidance for children below 12 years,” under the condition that Prakash Jha would chop off certain dialogues and scenes.

Raajneeti has some violent scenes and references to homosexuality and a love making scene between Katrina Kaif and Arjun Rampal.

According to reliable sources, Prakash Jha had to cut down 50% of the lovemaking scene. Initially, he did not want to reveal it to the reporters. Later, he admitted to Hindustan Times.com. He said, "There was a love-making scene in the film featuring Arjun Rampal. I had to cut out 50 per cent of it. I also had to delete some abusive language in the film…It was a very aesthetically shot love making scene. Arjun and Katrina are two very beautiful people. And they made love to the camera. The Tribunal felt it was a bit too explicit for a 'UA' audience. I didn't argue.""

Earlier, a social worker named Naseem Khan filed a lawsuit to stay the release of Raajneeti for it would derogate the image of Sonia Gandhi. The good news is that the Censor Board announced that the characters in the movie do not resemble with any person living or dead.

Prakash Jha is known for making serious political movies. His major movies include Damul (1984), Mrityudand (1997), Gangaajal (2003), Apaharan (2006). Raajneeti is a political thriller which revolves around the lives of some politicians and an election.

Katrina Kaif Believes Her Character in Raajneeti is more glamorous

Katrina Kaif is now busy promoting her upcoming movie, Raajneeti. A political thriller, Raajneeti, has some of finest actors in Bollywood including Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Naseeruddin Shah, Ajay Devgan,Nana Patekar and finally Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. This is Katrina Kaif’s second outing with Ranbir Kapoor.

From the very beginning it has been speculated that Raajneeti is actually based on Sonia Gandhi’s life. Even Prakash Jha, director of the movie, in some of his earlier interviews said that, Raajneeti was based on India’s “first family of politicians,” which he now refrains from saying.

Katrina Kaif blames herself for all the confusion. She said that since she is a foreigner, many thought that the movie is based on Sonia Gandhi but that was not the case.

In Raajneeti, Katrina Kaif plays the role of a female politician which is very serious and non-glamorous but Katrina disagrees. She says that it is a misconception. She believes that woman’s glamour comes from the strength of her character, the fire in her and the ability to do something rare not by wearing a mini skirt. She says that the role of a domesticated woman is non-glamorous than the one she played in Raajneeti.

In Raajneeti, Katrina Kaif played Indu Pratap. She is the spoilt daughter of a political financer. Indu is very strong and does what she likes. Katrina said, “Indu is very outgoing, fiery, brash and wants everything in life. She is quite shameless in love, meaning, without any caution she goes to the person she loves and pushes him to love her back. When it doesn't get reciprocated she feels jolted and realises she can't get everything she wants, that way my character is pretty glamorous. The so-called unglamorous part comes only in the later half of the film when I am pushed to live a politician's life out of business compulsions.”

The biggest challenge Katrina Kaif faced while playing the character is her poor knowledge of politics and Hindi accent.

Prakash Jha has very good knowledge about Bihar politics and Katrina Kaif watched lots of videos of famous female politicians to prepare for her character. She even met some politicians including Sheila Dikshit and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

She also had work hard on her Hindi accent.

Raajneeti is releasing in theatres next Friday. Let’s wait and see, how people accept Katrina Kaif in her new avatar.

Katrina Kaif starrer Raajneeti faced lawsuit over defaming Sonia Gandhi

Katrina Kaif’s Rajneeti had been sued by a social worker on the ground of defaming, Congress party President, Sonia Gandhi. The movie is scheduled to release on June 4, 2010.

In Raajneeti, Katrina Kaif played the role of a female politician. Her sari clad picture sparked rumor that she is actually playing the character of Sonia Gandhi. This prompted Naseem Khan, a social worker, to file a case against Raajneeti at the Mumbai Civil court. Naseem Khan urged the court to ban the film on the ground that Katrina kaif’s character is based on Sonia Gandhi’s life and director Prakash Jha should not degrade Sonia Gandhi’s image by showing intimate scenes between Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif.

However, Prakash Jha said that Katrina Kaif’s character has no resemblance with Sonia Gandhi. In fact, all the characters in the movie have no resemblance with any person living or dead.

Katrina Kaif admitted of watching the videos of Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to portray the character of a politician but she also said that her character has no resemblance with Sonia Gandhi. Katrina Kaif even went on to meet some female politicians like Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister, Delhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. She spoke highly of Sonia Gandhi and expressed her wish to meet with Sonia Gandhi in person.

Raajneeti is a political thriller, revolving around some political characters and an election. The movie stars some of the top actors of Bollywood including Ajay Devgan, Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Jiah Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai. After Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Katrina Kaif paired up with Ranbir Kapoor for the second time in the movie.

The court will give its verdict on the case on June 10, 2010 after receiving censor reports on the movie.

Katrina Kaif would be very happy to play Sonia Gandhi in Bollywood

Katrina Kaif says that Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, is her inspiration and she would be happy to play her role in the movie if she ever gets any opportunity. Katrina Kaif is one of top actresses of Bollywood but she has been doing glamorous roles most of time in her movies. For the first time, she played a different role in her upcoming movie, Raajneeti.

Katrina Kaif is now busy promoting Raajneeti. In a recent press conference, she spoke highly of Congress President, Sonia Gandhi. She said that what Sonia Gandhi achieved is incredible and it had been a great source of inspiration to her. While asked about ideal politician, she mentioned Sonia Gandhi’s name. Katrina said that she found Sonia Gandhi ideal not for being a politician but her life as a woman.

Many believe that Katrina Kaif’s character, Indu Sakseria, had been inspired from Sonia Gandhi but Katrina denied it. She plays the role of lady love of Ranbir Kapoor in the movie who plays the role of a politician. The movie also stars Ajay Devgan, Arjun Rampal, Naseeruddin Shah, Manoj Bajpai and Sarah Thompson.

Katrina Kaif’s character in Raajneeti is not based on Sonia Gandhi

Once again Katrina Kaif is the center of media attention as her upcoming movie, Raajneeti, is slated to release in June. Recently, One India did an interview with the actress where she talked about Raajneeti and her career and future projects. While talking about Raajneeti, Katrina Kaif said:

Raajneeti has a popular subject. It is about the politics of life. It is a paradox which is also happening in your own family. It is something which happens between two lovers or for that matter a husband and a wife. It is a film on relationships. What I like about Raajneeti is that it is a film which is full of complexities in character. The film is about insecurities suffered by the character played by Ajay Devgan.

It is believed that Katrina Kaif’s character, Indu Pratap, is inspired from Sonia Gandhi’s character, as she played the character of a widow but Katrina said:

Let me reiterate that I am not playing the character which is based on Sonia Gandhi in Raajneeti. So what if I play a widow? My character of ‘Indu’ in Raajneeti is based on the character of Draupadi from Mahabharat. Indu is not only a strong and independent but also has modern values. Besides the fact that the film is helmed by a director like Jha, one more reason that made me agree to do the film is that you do not encounter roles other than typical ones in commercial films. Also I was glad that I was not required to look ugly or wear a pair of spectacles in Raajneeti, though I play a widowed character.

Initially, Katrina Kaif was apprehensive about the role for it would not go with her image. Very often people ask her why she does not do serious roles. Prior to signing New York, which was also a serious movie, Katrina Kaif appeared in Raajneeti. She wanted to try something new because Katrina felt that she had been prejudiced.

Katrina Kaif is going to meet Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for her movie Raajneeti

Katrina Kaif is desperate to get rid of her glamour girl image in Bollywood. The actress worked very hard for her upcoming movie, Raajneeti, a political thriller. Katrina could not attend her grandmother’s party in London as flights were cancelled due to volcanic ash. She then called Prakash Jha and redub her lines for the movie. She minutely watched various video recordings of renowned political leaders such as Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit; Congress leader, Ambika Soni; Priyanka Gandhi and Indira Gandhi to learn their mannerisms.

In Raajneeti, Katrina Kaif played the character of a female politician, Indu Pratap Singh. Now, the actress wants to meet Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Congress leader Ambika Soni to see whether she truly portrayed their mannerisms in the movie. Katrina Kaif was also interested to meet Sonia Gandhi, chairman of the ruling UPA. Unfortunately, Sonia Gandhi could not make time to see her. Katrina Kaif’s only regret is that she could not meet Indira Gandhi, who always inspired her most apart from her mother.

Director Prakash Jha is also interested to arrange these meetings so that the government has a positive view about this movie. He hopes that if these ladies see Raajneeti, then they would recommend the film for exemption from entertainment taxes.

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