my cat behaves strange after watching Dhoom3


my autistic student, who loves all things Bollywood, interestingly enough, rejected trailers and songs. Usually he can’t get enough. Cat drives me mad.

Is there catnip in Dhoom3? We will get to the bottom of this! :-)

 

You know how your thoughts run wild during a movie? the same way as life flashes before your eyes when you die… my flashing thoughts were (not necessarily in that order..) Could it be that Uday Chopra mistook his role for Johnny Depp’s in Pirates of the Caribbean?…

Aamir. kabhi Ghajini face, kabhi My Name is Khan.

Aamir worked out really hard for this role. His body looks like out of steel. I don’t want to sound mean but all these protein shakes gave him man boobs.

The production team worked really hard on camouflaging differences of height between Katrina and Aamir. On frames where they stood next to each other, Aamir probably stood on a ladder.

Locations must have cost a FORTUNE, sets too. Costumes were splendid, except for Katrina in baby jumper and shapeless floppy hat. Thank Goodness she started stripping right away. Best.I loved the willowy lemony dress but it got hardly any showtime.

Also,talking about our heroine, they forgot to write a role for Katrina… really, what was her role? c’mon, Bollywood writer boys, you can do better…!

I am mocking and mocking, but I was wildly entertained watching Dhoom3. Not a dull moment. Movie went by so fast. 3 hours in a flash, you couldn’t fall asleep even if you tried.

Ending was tres (accent grave)  Dil Se.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, a Bollywood quilt


Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani or formerly known as….

Each little patch of this quilt reminded me of some other Bollywood movies. or respectively reversing situations not to get blamed for plagiarism. I got caught in some vague deja-vus, reminiscent moments of Barfi, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Jab We Met and a gazillion revamped Bollywood cliches.. Plus: we  were  looking for hints about the REAL relationship between Deepika and Ranbir, the actors, not actees. We are curious, of course. Or, at least, I am. To a certain degree. After what transpired on the Koffee with Karan episode…

Hey, good news, you can take Grandma and Grandpa to see Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. They might object to the excessive alcohol consumption (they will need to complain about something, all right?) but there is no nudity nor smoking (hence no prior obligatory 10min graphic lung cancer commercial) and the screen kiss between Ranbir and Deepika won’t make anybody’s cherry pop by a mile.

In this charming coming of age saga, because charming it is, some people know what they want to do when they grow up, some don’t. Luckily for us, Ranbir, sorry, Bunny,  likes to travel. Deepika plays the studious pre-med Naina, who nobody notices because she is oh so shy. After graduating high school, the otherwise bookish Naina spontaneously decides to join a group of friends,  Aditi  (played by wild thing Kalki Koechlin) and Avi, (played by BW’s new hunk Aditya Roy Kapoor), and of course playboy Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor)  on a trek to Manali. Tip for Bunny: If you intend to hike mountains, preferably leave your 2feetx 2feet photo album behind. Bunny has his handy,  even on the peak of the highest mountain. It made me think, why not bring a sofa?

Well, guys, I don’t want to give too much away. See for yourself how high school dreams and first loves turn out eight years later. It’s an easygoing feel-good romance, with some great locations, fantastic backdrops which make you want to explore more of India’s treasures rather than travel abroad.

This movie has no great highs or great lows, other than mountain peaks and valleys, but the performances are fresh and alluring.

One thing that ticked me off and I need to get it off my chest:: We don’t get the pleasure watching Deepika practicing medicine, as the most accomplished member of the group. Eight years later she has a medical degree, but still sits at home watching TV? The camera follows Bunny’s cam through the second half of the movie..

Ayan Mukerjii, the director, who directed also Wake Up, Sid, is first and second counsin of Kajol and Rani Mukerji. And I bet even they would have liked to see a little bit more focus on the heroine’s accomplishment. But hey, I understand, you can’t drag guys into a movie where the heroine is the success story. Let’s dumb her down to manageable size.

But then calling the protagonist Bunny… ? I don’t know anymore what message this movie sends :-p nor what happened to the ghosts on the mountain and why they didn’t show up to stir a little drama for special effects

.

Rahul Bose switches into damage control mode, but offers no apology


Rahul Bose certainly knows how to broaden his female fan-base uttering just a few words.

Rahul Bose ‏ @RahulBose1

It’s really quite simple. O2 in, CO2 out.

and another tweet that reads:

Please read ALL my tweets before jumping down my throat again! There are 10 of them. 11, w/this one. On a flight, so back in 3hrs. Cheers.

Cheerful as that sounds, he might be just on the verge of turning into the Indian equivalent of Mel Gibson and he should be perhaps the one to start with breathing exercises.

rahul-bose-02

But thankfully India is more forgiving than America with people who step into a hornet’s nest. What he is  talking about is the reaction to his proposal to rehabilitate rapists in India and transform them into “gender warriors” – whatever that means. A day later a holy storm unleashes on him in form of a twitter war.The poor guy all he wanted is help us women…. how could his effort backfire in this manner?

It just happens so that India has been rattled by most brutal gang rapes, every day now it seems new ones are being reported. It has women, mothers, fathers, daughters on edge.

The reaction wouldn’t be so strong if India’s justice system hadn’t been so lenient in dealing with rapists for as long as we can remember…What’s needed right now is harsher sentencing, follow-through. Women who come forward should be treated sensitively, instead being blamed for provoking what happened to them. Until now it seems victims were being accused, like “she had it coming, the way she dresses” But the last horrendous incident in Delhi last November, has turned a page after people took in drones to the street calling for justice.

We know Rahul Bose deep down  has his heart in the right place, but this is a very delicate matter. And his message might have been misconstrued and ill-received because the times right now call for action, for stricter punishments. Also, it’s coming from a man. The politically correct thing to do for a man is to reaffirm the need of acknowledgment and punishment for rape, not so much forgiveness.

Besides, people extract from carpet statements the one or two ideas that emerge and are recognizable, sticking out like a sour thumb. Forgiveness and rehabilitation. Forgiveness HAS BEEN ALWAYS THERE, UNFORTUNATELY. That’s the problem. Part of the problem.

It’s a little bit like a white dude saying “I don’t understand. **Ni**er** is not a bad word, I hear black folks saying it all the time”  and you want to grab him and tell him “It comes with a whole painful history attached to it!”

It’s the same as Rahul Bose telling us to show compassion to sorry-ass rapists and love conquers all. It’s the way to a better society.

He is living in dreamland. First of all, what about faking of being sorry? What about required long-term therapy and follow-ups? who’s going to pay for that.. how will you deliver those services? What about recidivism? are there any studies about the likelihood of repeat sex offenders in India? especially in a lenient system that prefers to hush dirty little secrets under the table…. it’s not as easy as handing out little cornflowers and preaching about the benefits of lovemaking vs rape. And please, shift the focus of your sermon to the victims and deliver services to them that make THEM heal from their psychological and physical wounds. Rapists should know: no mercy will be bestowed on you! That’s the only message that will bring change!

read more:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Rahul-Bose-wont-apologise-for-his-reform-comments/articleshow/18880438.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/filmi-parties/bollywood/Ring-The-Bell-social-media-storm-in-Delhi/articleshow/18880551.cms?

the looooong-awaited screen kiss


The Kiss

The Kiss

How many years,  DECADES,  have we waited for Srk’s first kiss? on screen, okay…. As for me,  since Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

After watching Jab Tak Hai Jaan  I have to say… too little too late, because for so many years he has been avoiding the kiss and alone the subject of it that, I think, we all made our peace with the hero who never kisses. Now, in a moment of midlife crisis, obviously,  Shahrukh plants one on Katrina Kaif. And guess what, the chemistry between these two wasn’t right. It’s not the longing and romantic, heart-throbbing kiss, it’s just  “a kiss” – with no attachments. No tingling in the air.  He basically sacrificed this last bastion of privacy for no good reason. I almost feel bad for him. check it out. He looks MISERABLE.

Probably it was Yash Raj’s idea, bad idea. And we can’t blame him..Anymore anyway. The kiss was supposed to be the dot of the i in his prolific and exciting career as filmmaker and producer. It hasn’t worked out as he had planned. Nothing in life ever does.  Right now he is probably up there in heaven, scratching his head, thinking to himself ‘ I had planned that so well and look how underwhelmed every one is with these lukewarm kissing scenes’…

Yeah, Yash. C’est la vie. We know how that goes with things we await so anxiously for so long…they always have a way of letting us down.

 

in love with Deepika Padukone


I know I shouldn’t talk this way, being a woman and all. But I just can’t help myself.  Yesterday I went to see Cocktail, the new movie produced by and starring Saif Ali Khan and Wonder-Women Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty. All eyes were naturally on Penty, who made her Bollywood debut with this movie, an impressive one what’s more, but I couldn’t unglue my eyes from Deepika, who plays Veronica,  and who lives life in London’s fast lane camouflaging wounds from the past by acting out as a party queen, as the It-girl.

As Veronica, she is a tortured soul battling loss and abandonment issues and she hides a great deal of vulnerability under her contemporary, sleek fashionista appearance.  Audiences and critics were surprised that the hi-five feel-good movie morphed into melodram during the second half.  I wasn’t. I thought Deepika’s deeply-layered performance reflected already a storm to come. Not only did I love her character but she made me believe it.  Had Deepika been born roughly two millennia back in Greece or Rome they would have worshiped her as the goddess Artemis or respectively, Diana. Or at least she would have personified them in their amphi-theaters.

I was awe-struck when I saw her first in Om Shanti Om (2007) She showed such confidence and poise already in her Bollywood debut. Deepika puts meat into her roles!

Her performances shoot like arrows. Even in roles that show her vulnerability, she never wants to be pitied. And that’s her.  She can get angry, like any self-respecting goddess, she can charm you, seduce you, she can get hit by life, abandoned by her lovers, but she will not be submissive.  Not Deepika.  So I think she OWNED the movie, talking about Cocktail!

Diana Penty shows great promise and a real knack for acting.  She is doted with a gracious screen-presence and she reminded me a lot of this beautiful actress in Swades, Gayatri Joshi, who to fans’ dismay got married soon after the movie and vanished from the radar. Diana is exquisite, an elegant creature by all standards, but no match to Deepika whose acting skills keep you magnetized and breathless. Anyway, that’s just my five cents.

She could even pull it off making us believe her infatuation with boytoy Saif, who slowly starts lacking the sex appeal as a romantic hero, hmmm. Hrithik might have been better for that role..  but one thing is for sure, the actors seemed to be all very comfortable with each other, which is a strong point in the movie, the triangle story. Diana Penty though couldn’t pull off the falling in love part… hehe.  I didn’t buy it.

I really could relate to the rest of the story.. and I’ve seen more than one cases like these, where friendships are sacrificed for love. One of the hardest lessons to learn in life. Nothing hurts more and I thought that was somehow the more interesting part of the movie.  Again I could sympathize with Veronica, her disappointment and rage, pulling out all the stops to reverse the situation with “I’ll be anything you want me to be, just don’t leave me..FOR HER, Hello, my formerly best friend!!”

It also rings  true that we might go into a relationship thinking we are in control and it won’t mean much at first, but then we open ourselves up to love, gradually and unnoticeably,  and before we know it BANG! it backfires and MrWonderful-oh-so-fullofsh *t moves on to greener pastures. And for some reason they seem to gravitate towards our friends or sisters, as if the world didn’t have millions of other women to choose from…. Out of Laziness?  No, absolutely. Good movie. If you just start out in life, it’s an Education :-)

PS  WHO LOVED THE SHOES??

OMG, Deepika’s outfits? TO DIE FOR!!!

Music was good too.

 

Dee’s Wikipedia page:  Deepika Padukone

Teri Meri Kahaani


 

Teri Meri Kahaani didn’t live up to my promise, I am afraid. But if you enjoy the old Hillary Duff flicks, then you will like this one…

It had its redeeming qualities.  Some of the songs are really catchy. Great sets and locations. Shahid and Priyanka always nice to watch, even though I take points of for Shahid’s stylist. 60s and 2012 haircuts sucked. It seems that only in Lahore in 1910 they knew what looks good on our glorious hunk Shahid.  the haircut didn’t seem to deter the female attendance. Our Bombay Theater in Queens was packed to the rim!!

Maybe I have just outgrown the phase in life where I think legions of LOLs and smiley faces and dull one liners in twitterverse are fun to watch when bleeped onto the movie screen. If that’s what our era will leave as a legacy we’re doomed.

This movie shines being mostly dialogue-free. I mean who needs dialogue anyways? so overrated in a romcom….

Also, I thought in the first part where the jodi meets on the train the director decided it should have elements of a silent movie, so you thought Charlie Chaplin or the Marx Brothers are about to jump out on the screen…

Teri Meri Kahaani was highly uneven throughout. It had some nice elements but it felt patchworked, laboured. Silly. Sound editing was horrible. It had some major flaws. but I will also admit that I had a good time watching it. Nothing in life is perfect. So what if this movie had its flaws, it was still very entertaining.

Kunal Kohli shows great promise as a director and I am very hopeful that his next movies will be more polished as he is gaining more experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shahrukh Khan – from smoking hot to smoking angry to just smoking…


Ok, we got it. Smoking is bad for you. And it’s bad for Shahrukh. In many more ways than one.

 

from most beloved to angry superstar, to fined and bad-rep superstar. All he needs now for his image is a court order for cigarette smoking.  Srk Marlboro Man under fire. It’s a good thing he was in Pune when the guys showed up with the summons, because lately his fuse got short. Maybe that’s also the fault of cigarettes..

Thankfully we live in a free world. If we want to destroy ourselves with our bad habits that’s our prerogative. I hate the fact that Srk is smoking. but I love the fact that, at the end of the day, it’s HIS business. I am surprised. The witch-hunt on smoking is on, even in India, land of the… I don’t want to say lawless, but let’s admit where you can get out of a traffic ticket waving with a 100 rupees bill….

Hey it’s not that cigarettes are outlawed in movies… we see stars smoking in movies ALL THE TIME but dare you light up in REAL LIFE! slap slap slap on your wrist. Bad boy. Don’t do everything you see in the movies. like drinking yourself senseless, using drugs..beating up people, shoot them in the back, crash cars that are in your way while your being chased. Kill kill and kill some more…

In the movies everyone can get away with murder. In real life you light up a cigarette, you leave a hairline scratch  on someone’s car while getting out of a tight parking spot and the law comes running after you.

our double standards. BTW, why don’t get other movie stars flak?

check out these guys.. you think they smoke only in bathrooms and where it’s allowed????

 

http://wonderwoman.intoday.in/photo/actors-who-smoke-in-real-life/1/807.html#photo1

807.html#photo1

 

I am glad I quit that nasty habit and more and more smoke-free zones are in the works worldwide, but I think smokers should be granted the freedom to choose.  Let’s clean up chemical plants, let’s turn our cars green. Let’s reduce our carbon footprint, get rid of plastic packaging, pesticides that seep into our ground water etc and THEN lets go after our smokers :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vidya Balan in Ghanchakkar


Vidya to play housewife in Ghanchakkar

By Bollywood Hungama News Network,May 14, 2012 – 04:17 hrs IST
#

After playing powerful characters in films like No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, Vidya Balan is now all set to play a simple housewife in her next film Ghanchakkar.

Ghanchakkar re-unites Vidya Balan with her The Dirty Picture‘co-star Emraan Hashmi. The film produced by UTV is directed by Rajkumar Gupta.

Rajkumar Gupta plans to shoot portions of the film guerilla style with hidden cameras on the streets of Mumbai

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/1438444/Vidya-to-play-housewife-in-Ghanchakkar

If THAT doesn’t get you excited, I mean, the prospect of seeing Vidya paired once again with Emraan Hashmi, with whom she shared great chemistry, apparently, on the set of The Dirty Picture, the name of the director gets ME excited!

Rajkumar Gupta  directed Aamir in 2008, a fast-paced thriller with Rajeev Khandelwal. That was a hellofa ride! the precursor of Kahaani… with a great performance by Khandelwal. I can’t wait to see what Gupta is going to do with a comedy (at least that’s what I read somewhere)  and such a wonderful actress like Vidya Balan. Again she is going to surprise us with a different take on her.  A housewife.  I appreciate Vidya’s never-ending search for novel roles. Plus, guerilla style, hidden cams, streets of Mumbai… I love the combo already.

If you haven’t seen Aamir or Kahaani, watch them. You won’t regret it.

Aamir

Kahaani

India’s film industry is on the roll! Innovative scripts, new directors, new concepts. Bollywood is spiraling through transformations on high speed and deserves more credit abroad than it gets. I only hope it doesn’t lose its cherished characteristics on this fast ride.

Rowdy Ram….Gopal Varma should stop apologizing. Department ain’t bad.


Thumbs down for all the critics who panned it. I should know better by now and not listening to critics. Is it because I am watching Bollywood movies from a Western perspective, or because I am weird, but I LOVED Department!

It’s a  department from your typical  good-cop bad-cop, corrupt politician, or in this case, gangster-turned-politician,  feuding-dons-narrative. Partly because the camera angles force you out of your comfort zone and turn everything upside down in unison with the characters who switch continuously in their loyalties.  At the end you are visually and mentally puzzled and can’t tell right from wrong anymore yourself. As the characters keep emphasizing, only situations keep fluctuating in terms of right or wrong. Illegally legal or legally illegal?   Unfortunately there is a component of a disturbingly wishful thinking  here, why not create a system that allows us to kill off all the bad guys without giving them legal recourse, in a Gestapo death squad fashion. It also shows you how complicated it could get.

I usually fall asleep during these kind of movies, but Department had me up and interested in the progression of the story from the first to the last moment. Big B as Sarjerao and Sanjay Dutt, as police officer Mahadev, were just marvelous to watch in action, how they can bring to life complex characters with such ease. I also enoyed Rana Daggubati’s performance in his transformation from good, brave and honest cop to kiss my derriere.

Ram Gopal Varma was lucky Sunny Leone pulled out.  Nathalia Kaur was sensationally hot. She was ON FIRE! an erupting volcano of sensuality. junglee wild. Her item number was breath-taking.  The other songs fell flat. Even though I enjoyed watching Amitabh swinging his leg…:-)

Abhimanyu Singh as  DK and Madhu Shalini as Naseer were miscast.  Naseer wasn’t sociopathic enough.  Kalki Koechlin would have been a better choice for that role.

Vijay Raaz as Sawatya, the don who keeps losing clout, was an asset.  some memorable camera shots and light.

I loved the queer cinematography, the exaggerations of the fight scenes. It all added up to be wildly entertaining. from foot fetish to tea-cup fetishism, the unbalanced and shaky camera. I thought it was all very original. I truly enjoyed the movie. And I BET cinematographers will use those ideas and maybe integrate them with more finesse perhaps, but they should take notice and integrate some of these concepts in movies of this genre.

Bombay theater in Flushing had actually a fairly nice showing. Of course 99% were men. I was surprised after these terrible reviews to see anybody show up.

I  have one dumb question though for those bravehearts, who actually watched the movie:  I don’t know if it  might have been lost in translation or set up intentionally, but Who was  Mohammed Gauri in all of this. Did I miss the most important point or could this have been

A tool for setting up a possible sequel?

Plot

When police officer Mahadev Bhosale (Sanjay Dutt) is asked by his bosses to form a hit squad to take on the Mumbai underworld, he recruits Shiv Narayan (Rana Daggubati), an honest and brave police officer who had been suspended for an encounter killing.

Together, Mahadev, Shiv and others in the ‘Department’ take on Sawatya’s (Vijay Raaz) gang. Sawatya, in spite of many exhortations by his number two, D.K. (Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh), and D.K.’s feisty girlfriend, Naseer (Madhu Shalini), does not hit back at the police.

There is another rival gang, lead by one Mohammad Gauri.

There is also the gangster-turned-minister, Sarjerao Gaikwad (Amitabh Bachchan), who takes Shiv under his wing after Shiv saves his life at a public rally. Mahadev warns Shiv that Sarjerao is just using him. After a certain turn of events, it is exposed that Mahadev is actually working for Mohammad Gauri and is, at the ganglord’s behest, finishing off Sawatya’s gang.

While Shiv declines to be a part of Mahadev’s corrupt world, and Mahadev agrees to let him be, things start falling apart between the mentor and the apprentice when Shiv starts taking on a sub-gang formed by D.K., under Mahadev’s protection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_%28film%29

postscript:

 

A lot of people hated it, some liked it, me for example. Unfortunately it did very poorly at the box office. Sorry, RGV. not only did it cost you professional friendships, but it looks like it’s going to be a huge financial loss. For the time being.

I can imagine though that people will warm up to it eventually. The performances were really good and it was a hell of a funny movie. :-)

 

MUMBAI: As reported by businessofcinema.com, amongst major films, Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Department’ had replaced Venus’ ‘Tezz’, as the lowest opener of 2012 with first day collections of approximately Rs 25 million ( Rs 2.5 crore) net.

The first week collections showed no improvement. For a film opening in more than 1500 screens, ‘Department’ has seen the lowest first week collections. The total first week collections are in the range of Rs 115 million (Rs 11.50 crore) net.

Making matters worse, the second week has begun on an extremely poor note. On the 8th day, there has been a fall in collections of close to 95%.

 

 

Ram Gopal Varma on frenemy rampage. Day 2


When a film flops, relationships sometimes go the way of the Titanic. Such seems to be the case with Ram Gopal Varma and Sanjay Dutt.  Whose fault is it, everyone asks, the film has turned into a nightmare instead of a work of art. Finger pointing begins. And RGV tweets a link of his unabashed interview with the Mumbai Mirror in the aftermath of the dismal opening of his movie Department.

 

 

Wouldn’t it be wiser to shut up and take the defeat?  It’s just one movie… and occasionally a movie will flop.  But from now on, every big actor is going to be afraid to work with RGV for making condescending remarks and blaming Sanjay Dutt for ruining his film.  Somehow I am in awe that RGV has the guts to do it, taking the bull by the horns, but life has taught me that this is never a truly good idea – in the long run.

Reading this interview sheds light and explains to me why, at the time, Lamhaa turned out to be mediocre. Instead of focusing on the narrative and emphasizing Kunal Kapoor, who had a key role but got no screen time,  it became a boring movie centering monotonously around Sanjay Dutt. Now I am going in full circles hypothesizing,  Ahuh! Probably Sanjay Dutt + entourage messed up a potentially good movie there in the same manner, interfering with the director. But be that as it may, for RGV, it seems to me, washing the dirty laundry in public,  could spell doom.

Another problem is that Sanjay Dutt’s career is untouchable. He is too good of an actor. He is one of the finest villains there is in Bollywood. As such he has tremendous clout and RGV’s accusations won’t go down well with him. We shall see what the future holds in this saga.

I doubt that Department will ever turn into a cult film like Natural Born Killers. RGV will have to go back to the drawing board and learn from his mistakes. That’s at least how I see it..

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/30/2012052320120523015616909943f4551/I-blame-Abhishek-for-this.html

 

You are here – HomeEntertainmentBollywood Story

Bollywood

I blame Abhishek for this

On Day 2 of the war of words, RGV hits back with potshots at Dutt and Oberoi and doesn’t spare Bachchan Jr either

 

 

Why did you wait for Department’s release to vent your anger and discomfort with Sanjay Dutt and Dharam Oberoi?
It is dangerous to start changing the content and screenplay midway through a film because it is so easy to lose your objectivity. So when they compelled me to do that by using various coercive forces halfway through the film since I was anyway stuck, I had a professional commitment to finish the film and had to wait until now.

Isn’t it a blame game going on after the film crashed?
I am not blaming anyone except myself. The biggest mistake I made was to go to an actor as unprofessional and as unimaginably erratic as Dutt.

There were problems with Sanjay Dutt and co-producer Dharam Oberoi even during the making of the film?
The problems were innumerable, ranging from Dutt’s coming late to last-minute cancellation of shoots and schedules to erratically wanting to change the content of scenes in the name of creative discussions that are not to be confused with mindless interference. Aamir and me had creative differences during Rangeela but I didn’t pay heed to the mistakes he pointed out. Despite Rangeela becoming a blockbuster, when I saw the film much later, I felt I had gotten away with the mistakes that he had pointed out. I genuinely believe Rangeela would have been a bigger hit had I listened to Aamir. The difference being Aamir’s suggestions and observations came from a long and intense deliberation on his part and not like Dutt who was blurting out without thinking, encouraged by the likes of Dharam who pander to him for their personal benefits.

You have said Dutt forced you to drop Kangana from the film and also interfered in the screen play?
Yes. Dharam told me Sanjay wanted Kangana to be dropped and since it’s a predominantly male-dominated action film, I didn’t want to make an issue. I also wish Sanjay Dutt realises what Dharam talks behind his back and for his sake, I hope he distances himself from Oberoi before it is too late.

What difference would Kangana have made to your film?
It’s not about the difference and like I said, that’s the reason I didn’t make an issue. It’s about the way Dutt behaved.

Apparently, Dutt had concerns about the cameras you were using?
Not only him, even Amitji and Rana had but when they saw the quality of the film, they were happy and they spoke about it in the media too. In fact, Amitji spoke about it as the future of cinema even after the release and the reviews. The problem wasn’t about using the cameras but the way they were used in terms rapid panning, some unseen angles and some deliberately jerky moments. However, these were hardly eight to 10 shots in the film. Otherwise, usage of these cameras is prevalent the world over, including in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire.

Apparently, Dharam made additional money. Did he take a commission for casting Sanjay Dutt that was over and above his payment?
I wouldn’t like to comment on that but I guess, the concerned people know.

And while you’ve said with respect to Department that you don’t make films for critics, we’d like to ask you whether you don’t make films for the box office either?
Why would any director, be it me or Sriram Raghavan or Ashutosh Gowariker, want to make a film that doesn’t work? Why would I want all my time and effort to be wasted? Whether anyone believes it or not, I work with the same passion on every film. Only, I seem to have more bad films simply because I make more number of films.

On Monday night, you sent a message to Abhishek Bachchan saying, “You brought this disease into my life by recommending Sanjay Dutt”. Comment.
No messages happened between Abhishek and me with regard to this but the truth is that when Abhishek was supposed to do Rana’s role, it was he who convinced me about Dutt against my better judgement. Later on, he couldn’t do the film and I was left with Dutt. So I definitely blame Abhishek for making me go through this though it was unintentional on his part.

While you’ve made landmark films, people say you’ve lost focus. Comment.
Since everyone has a mouth, everyone will have an opinion. The people who work with me know how focused I am and so I would advise people who are not concerned with me to rather focus on themselves instead of focusing on my focus.