The most prone areas to increased heatwaves are Gujarat, Maharashtra, North Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, North Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh…reports Asian Lite News
As the country battles scorching heat and the arrival of summer, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a possible heatwave in multiple states across South India.
The weather agency predicted heatwave conditions over peninsular India from April 3 to April 6.
Hot and humid weather is very likely to prevail over Coastal Karnataka, Kerala & Mahe, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry & Karaikal, from April 2 to April 6, over Telangana, South Interior Karnataka from April 2 to April 4 and over Coastal Andhra Pradesh & Yanam and Rayalaseema on April 2 and April 3.
The IMD said heatwave conditions are very likely in isolated pockets in north interior Karnataka this week, from April 3 to April 5. Further, parts of Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh are also expected to experience heatwave conditions.
It also predicted above normal heatwaves in most parts of the northern plains of the country from April to June.
The most prone areas to increased heatwaves are Gujarat, Maharashtra, North Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, North Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The Director General of Meteorology at IMD, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, said at a press briefing that normal rainfall is also expected during the month of April across the country.
He was addressing a briefing on the seasonal outlook for the hot weather season of April to June.
“Above normal maximum temperatures are likely over most parts of the country, especially with high probability over central India and western peninsular India,” Mohapatra said.
Mohapatra informed that normal to below-normal maximum temperatures are likely to occur in some parts of the western Himalayan region, north-east states and north Odisha.
On heatwave conditions, Mohapatra said: “Above normal heatwave days are likely over most parts in the country. 10 to 20 days of heat wave expected in different parts against normal of 4 to 8 days.” (ANI)
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Friday that North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear test at any time it decides…reports Asian Lite News
Yoon was responding to a reporter’s question about the US Department of Defence’s assessment that the North has completed preparations to carry out a nuclear test as early as within the month, Yonhap news agency reported.
“We believe that not only at the end of this month, but ever since my inauguration, it’s fully ready and able to do it whenever it decides,” he told reporters as he arrived for work.
Then, the cinemas reopened at 50 per cent capacity to start with and are now allowed to operate at full capacity. To their relief, the cinema chains had a lineup of films due for release…reports Vinod Mirani
The first quarter of the year held a great promise for the film industry to level up with the pre-Covid-19 times and return to the good old normal days when a pandemic did not run your life or, rather, restrict it. For various reasons, though, the film industry has not been able to realise that promise.
Ever since the exhibition trade re-opened post-pandemic, initially with restrictions of limited capacity, there was a sigh of relief. The exhibitors were back in business after almost two years of uncertainties. Since then, however, the films made for the Hindi audience are not working as expected. And it is not because they are remakes of South films. Because, South films dubbed in Hindi are doing better than they ever did.
I have mentioned this on an earlier occasion, the South dubbed films used to be released in the Hindi belt as gap fillers when the times were not conducive for the box office prospects of a mainstream film. But the cinemas had to run. Things seem to have changed and, in fact, South films dubbed in Hindi have salvaged the first quarter of the year to some extent.
Somewhere during the lockdown, the viewer has come to terms with certain things, starting with content being most important. OTT platforms filled the gap and continued to provide entertainment when the cinemas were shut. On streaming platforms, there were quite a few big successes and most of them did not boast of big stars.
In fact, OTT serials that succeeded featured either newcomers, or actors who were not getting assignments in films any longer, or those who played character roles in films. Somehow, even on OTT platforms, some of the films with big stars failed to find favour with the viewer!
Then, the cinemas reopened at 50 per cent capacity to start with and are now allowed to operate at full capacity. To their relief, the cinema chains had a lineup of films due for release.
We saw no major release in January. February saw the release of ‘Badhaai Do’ and ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’. The former just about managed to touch double-digit collections (in crores) and ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ just could not justify the hype around it. The claimed collection figure for it is about Rs 118 crore, but the trade puts it at about Rs 80 crore!
Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Jhund’ again remained a non-starter, barely managing to cross the double-digit marK with about Rs 12 crore. Much was expected of ‘Bachchhan Paandey’, being a remake of the Tamil film ‘Jigarthanda’ (which, in turn, had been inspired by a South Korean film) and an Akshay Kumar-starrer at that! The film failed to get a decent opening and had to be withdrawn from many cinemas or the number of shows allotted to it curtailed.
It could not cross even the Rs 50 crore mark, thereby qualifying to be rated as a disaster. Ironically, the Tamil original had won two National Awards, one for Bobby Simha (Best Supporting Actor) and another for Vivek Harshan (Best Editing) in March 2015.
The first quarter belonged to just one film, ‘The Kashmir Files’. A small film with senior character actors playing the protagonists, it has stirred up the biggest political debate in the country and its after-effects are being felt nationwide. And, it did not let the box office down either. As the days went by since its release on limited screens, the film added not only more screens and therefore footfalls, but also touched Rs 240+ crore in Indian theatrical releases by Week 3.
Hindi filmmakers tend to remake South films, some even buy rights to movies that are many years old. Why do they fail? Take the recent example of ‘Bachchhan Paandey’, a major disaster. The reason is that you do not have decent writers in the Hindi film industry, and you also don’t seem to have rewrite people who can capture the essence of the original!
During the lockdown, OTT streaming content remained the subject of discussions on social media. Sadly, not much has changed since the resumption of new releases. The only release that has dominated social media is ‘The Kashmir Files.
Now, this is a film that does not entertain like a formula commercial production. Some even called it a documentary! Its success is something to be analysed. Fine. But what accounts for the poor performance of films such as ‘Bachchhan Paandey’, ‘Jhund’ and Badhaai Do’?
Of course, if these few films have managed to stay at the cinemas for just a few days and have figures like Rs 8 crore or Rs 12 crore to show, it is also because of the enhanced admission rates charged by the cinema managements since the reopening. A person who would love to watch a film at a cinema is put off. It seems like everybody is out to recoup the lockdown losses from the general public, be it a barber shop, or a restaurant, or a cinema theatre. They all are punishing the public for the loss of business.
So, what has happened in the first three months of 2022 is that the box office take-home so far has been just about Rs 350 crore, against Rs 850 crore to Rs 900 crore before the pandemic. A third of the normal business.
‘Content is king’ is a phrase most relevant to films and other entertainment media. Reminds me of the 1970s and 80s, when writers not only helped sell a film, but also competed with each other to deliver better content! There was a long list of film writers in business. Against this, we know of no writer in the Hindi film industry whose name matters, let alone helps sell a
film.
So far, in the last few years, the magic of none of the top stars has worked. Aamir Khan comes up with a film on rare occasions. Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan have been delivering duds on a regular basis. And, now, a fairly dependable Akshay Kumar is also facing rejection. To be practical, we can’t expect a film such as ‘The Kashmir Files’ every quarter to salvage the situation and let the cinemas function.
Talking of cinemas, one thought they were in a real jeopardy during the lockdown of more than 18 months. Quite contrary to the fears, the cinema exhibition trade seems to have come alive, if not at the box office, at least behind the scenes.
The latest news making the media rounds is that the PVR Group has taken over control of the INOX Group cinemas. A couple of weeks earlier, there was also talk of a PVR-Cinepolis merger. When these handshakes are formalised, will the film trade be confronted by the virtual monopoly of a single group of cinemas? Not that it is much different now, for the programmers of all these chains together decide on a film’s release strategy.
What filmmakers should worry about is how they will continue to remake South hits in Hindi if their dubbed versions are doing so well and the audience is already exposed to these films! There are about 25 South hits that are being made in Hindi as of now. Better find your own writers. Now, the latest dubbed South release, ‘RRR’ has done excellent business in the Hindi belt, collecting Rs 130 crore in the opening week.
Then there is this talk about why dubbed films do well with the Hindi audience while the originals are failing! A star was reported to be lamenting this situation. A distributor suggests, in jest of course, that our Hindi stars should do all their films in the South and release their dubbed versions in the Hindi market!
One would think it was the simultaneous release of ‘Sooryavanshi’ and ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ that gave rise to the speculation that the South films were scoring over Hindi films. It is all about perception and expectations…writes Vinod Mirani
There are columns written on the invasion of the South films and film stars, and that Hindi stars have ceded the ground and the Hindi audience is lapping up the content from the South.
Is any such thing happening, really? What prompts the columnists to decide this? Why suddenly more South stars are appearing as guests on television programmes, something that was unthinkable till the Covid-19 lockdowns struck?
Is it a sort of a campaign to undermine Hindi film stars, or is it just a case of ‘out of sight is out of mind’? Hindi stars, thanks to the various lockdowns and Covid-19 norms, are not much in the news. Shoots, even if they do happen, are mostly at some remote locations, away from Mumbai. Dubbed films and the South stars can be and are being used as the gap fillers by the media in place of normal content.
Whatever gives this impression that the South films and stars are making inroads into the Hindi film industry is unfounded. So, what has happened to make some columnists think the way they do?
‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ and ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ combined to score about Rs 650 crore at the box office in the Hindi belt. Ironically, the first part, which was good and a visual delight, contributed just about Rs 150 crore to this total.
‘The Conclusion’ was much inferior, but cashed in on the foundation laid by the first part as well as viewers seeking an answer to the most asked question of that time, “Why did Katappa kill Bahubal?” The second part went on to do a business of about Rs 500 crore!
So, ‘Baahubali’, the franchise, its content worked because nobody in the Hindi belt had heard of the hero Prabhas. His second film, ‘Saaho’, was nowhere near the ‘Baahubali’ franchise, nor did Hindi filmmakers make a beeline to sign him up. If that has not happened, he is not the star a Hindi filmmaker will bet his money on.
‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ released in 2015 and ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ in 2017. It was a closed chapter, a flash in the pan. So, what has created this air about South films and Hindi films?
One would think it was the simultaneous release of ‘Sooryavanshi’ and ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ that gave rise to the speculation that the South films were scoring over Hindi films. It is all about perception and expectations.
With three top stars of the Hindi industry — Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh — playing pivotal roles with hitmaker Rohit Shetty at the helm, ‘Sooryavanshi’ was being built up as a film to look forward to. But the lockdowns delayed the film’s release by over 18 months and when the film did release, the content was a gross letdown. I don’t know why successful filmmakers dabble in community issues in their films!
It so happened that ‘Sooryavanshi’ got a thumbs down from the viewers. But, as if that was not bad enough, the dubbed film, ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ managed to sustain at the box office. If people turn against a film, there are solid undercurrents and social media is the weapon of choice. While ‘Sooryavanshi’ was written off as a mediocre film, ‘Pushpa: The Rise’, a mediocre film, was praised to the skies!
These South films, which are dubbed in Hindi, have huge budgets and whatever they gross from the Hindi belt is sheer bonus. Yes, ‘Pushpa’ sustained, while ‘Sooryavanshi’ could not. But the film managed to reach the Rs 100-crore mark in the Hindi market only in its seventh week (Rs 100 crore means less than Rs 50 crore take-home).
In normal circumstances, a Hindi hit would do that kind of business in its first weekend. So, that is much ado about nothing.
So far, between 2015/17 and 2021, two dubbed films have sustained within the Hindi belt and that is hardly worth writing pages about.
It is a fact that Hindi films are starved of good writers and hence the need for original content. South films have always been an inspiration for Hindi filmmakers over the years. In between, we did have a generation of self-styled wizkids, the new breed of directors brought up on Hollywood films. So Hollywood films were remade in Hindi.
Some worked only because of the entertainment quotient. ‘Hamare Tumhare’, ‘Khatta Meetha’, ‘Satte Pe Satta’, ‘Andar Baahar’, ‘Baazigar’, ‘Dushman’, ‘Awara Pagal Deewana’, ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’, ‘Awarapan’, ‘Ghulam’, ‘Judwaa’, ‘Krrish’, and many more were Hollywood inspired.
Some filmmakers worked on making a place for music in these remakes because Hollywood movies have no place for songs a la Indian movies. The problem with most of these remakes was that they did not have much scope for music and they lacked the emotional angle. Both are the soul of our cinema. Songs, when forced in, were a drag on the film.
Except for this phase when Hollywood films were the inspiration, it was usually South films that Hindi filmmakers would fall back on. The South filmmakers were equally active in the Hindi film industry as they were in the South. Banners such as AVM, Gemini, Padmalaya, Suresh Pictures (Dr D. Rama Naidu), Prasad, Padmalaya, Chinnappa Devar, S. Ramanathan, Mani Ratnam, Purnachandra Rao, along with many top-rated directors, have all made films in Hindi over a period.
What the South filmmakers were known to do, if a regional film proved a hit, they would remake it in Hindi. In such cases, the Telugu-language films had the best record of succeeding in Hindi as their films were more identifiable for the Hindi audience. That usually worked.
During the late 1970s and 80s, the Hindi industry had many top South banners making films. When the South producers felt that they were being exploited by the system here, they all packed UP and left. This is how it has been for a long time. Most Hindi stars have worked in South remakes and continue to do so.
In fact, Jeetendra, after his disastrous home production, ‘Deedar-e-Yaar’, failed so badly that it almost made him bankrupt, with no Hindi producer offering him a film, salvaged his career with the help of South filmmaker L.V. Prasad’s film. Thereafter, the doors of South remakes in Hindi opened up for Jeetendra. There was a phase when almost all his films were South remakes.
So tied up was Jeetendra in Hyderabad and tired of staying in hotels days on end, that he even went ahead and bought a lavish bungalow there. Rajesh Khanna did many South films. Even Anil Kapoor consolidated his career thanks to South remakes.
The South was the main source of heroines in Hindi films, right from Waheeda Rehman, Vyjayantimala, Padmini, Leela Naidu, Hema Malini, Rekha, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Tabu, Jaya Prada, Sridevi, Asin, and many contemporary actresses who have made their way into Hindi films through the South.
When it comes to male actors from the South, there has been a lineup but nobody stayed or stuck around. They were rejected as soon as they landed in the Hindi industry. Earlier, the heroes from South, such as MGR and NTR, wore South all over them and there was no way they could be accepted in Hindi films.
But then came Kamal Haasan, Rajinikantj, Chiranjeevi, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Nagarjun, Venkatesh, Hareesh, Ambareesh, Vishnu Vardan, Arvind Swami, Chakravarthy, Prabhu Deva, R. Madhavan, Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj, Siddharth, Dhanush, Sudeep, Dulquer Salmaan. None of them have sustained or managed to make a mark in Hindi films.
The South producers may have stopped making films in Hindi, but Hindi filmmakers depend a lot on the South for subjects. South films offer them a wholesome package of action, romance, emotions and entertainment. Something that writers in Mumbai are no more capable of delivering.
Even at present, as more than 20 South remakes in Hindi are on the floors, including titles from Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema. The list is long: ‘Drishyam 2’, ‘Forensic’, ‘Ayyapanum Kohium’, ‘Helen’, ‘Anjaam Pathiraa’, ‘Mumbai Police’, ‘Nayattu’, ‘Dia’, ‘Ratsasan’, ‘Master’, ‘Rocky’, ‘Maan Karate’, ‘Nakshatra Tharattu’, ‘Aruvi’, ‘U Turn’, ‘Soorarai Pottru’, ‘Comali’, ‘Vikram Vedha’, ‘Kaithi’.
Still, two dubbed films do well at the Hindi box office in five years, that does not mean the Hindi industry is ceding ground to the South.
