Real Records or Marketing Ploys: TOI Article about…

Hyderabad Times gets you the real story behind the ‘record-breaking’ success of many films Suresh Kavirayani Success meets just three days after a film releases, claims of record-breaking overseas collections and announcements of unbelievable box office openings seem to be the new publicity stunts in T-Town. Irrespective of the film’s fate at the BO, producers are going on record, making tall claims. And amidst all the media blitzkrieg, it is hard to figure out which film is doing well and which one is being hyped. In the recent past, “Badrinath” announced that it collected 16 crore in three days, while “Oosaravelli” producer BVSN Prasad stated that his film collected 56 crore in the first week itself. Superstar Mahesh posted on a social networking site that “Dookudu” is officially the highest grosser so far in the Telugu film industry (reports say that the film grossed a whopping 83.15 crore). Are all this claims true or are they just publicity gimmicks? FAKE FIGURES “Most of these records are false and this is nothing but a ploy to lure audiences by creating a hype,” says filmmaker Thammareddy Bharadwaj. “If the film collects more than 50 crore, then the producer has to pay commensurate commercial tax to the government. Maybe it would benefit government officials to crosscheck if producers are indeed paying taxes for the amounts they are publicly declaring,” he adds. But even here, producers have been able to work their way out. Award-winning filmmaker Chandra Siddharth says, “I’ve heard of the commercial tax officials questioning producers about the tax when they claim their films collect huge amounts. But the producers apparently told them that it’s a marketing strategy!” reveals Chandra Siddharth. STAR RIVALRY Marketing strategies apart, much of the film’s hype is also about star rivalry. According to sources the makers of “Dookudu” were bent on beating the “Magadheera” record. “Ram Charan’s film ran for 50 days in 301 centers and the makers of “Dookudu” wanted to break that record and they claim that their film ran in 302 centers!” Similarly when “Dookudu” went about claiming that its overseas collections were 8 crore in 10 days, immediately “Oosaravelli” too joined the race, claiming they had 9.10 crore in just seven days. Most of these records are marketing gimmicks and it’s clearly a game of one-upmanship, says Siddharth. Agreeing with him Tammareddy says, “None of these records are official. We do not have an organization or a film body that maintains these records.” Vijayender Reddy, president of AP Exhibitors Association too feels that these records are not 100 per cent true. “I know many instances where stars had forced producers to run their films in theaters for the sake of records. They were pressurized to run the film for 50 days or 1 0 0 d ay s d e – spite few footfalls . FAN FACTOR Apart from the producers and the stars themselves, even fans have a role to play in perpetuating this unhealthy practice. Thammareddy Bharadwaj reveals, “Telugu film stars have a huge fan following. If the film does not run to a full house, there are instances of fans shelling out money from their pockets to make the show houseful. Such is the fan frenzy.” “I think stars have an important role to play in dissuading their fans from doing so,” he opines. SUCCESS MEETS? A n o t h e r fad in Ttown these days is holding success meets just three days after the film’s rel e a s e. Commenting on this trend, S i d d h a r t h says, “Earlier, in the Telugu film industry, films were declared a hit if they ran for 100 days. Nowadays it is different.” And according to our source, the bigger the flop, the sooner the success meet is held. “It’s the producers way of making some money by selling the event to TV channels!” he reveals. suresh.kavirayani@timesgroup.com

Badrinath Movie Review – by Chaitanya Kumar Vummethala

During the month of Badrinath Movie Release I was sick due to an accident and you all know about that story.. Yesterday I got a chance to watch the much awaited movie, Badrinath on my DVD Home Theatre and here is my review for the movie Badrinath (actually Badrinaath).

As its one of my favorite hero’s movie, I wanted to spend enough time on it (which got divide talk during its run) so that I can better analyse all +ves and -ves of Badrinath movie. Badrinath is a much deserving high budget movie for Allu Arjun (who is a performance oriented actor) after his debacle like Varudu and critically acclaimed movie Vedam. 

Home banner Geetha Arts has taken enough time and invested huge budgets on this prestigious project for the pivotal career growth in Arjun’s career path to make it as a milestone movie in Allu Arjun’s filmography. Chinni Krishna’s long waiting script was chosen for this project and Allu Arjun has joined VVV (VV Vinayak) after his VV (Varudu & Vedam) this has actually built huge expectations on Badrinath, due to the past blockbusters of the above two. 

Let us see, how the outcome is

After looking at initial wallpapers and posters I kept huge expectations on the movie and spent almost an hour time on a Special post on Badrinath on 27th May 2011 (exactly 2 days before my accident). Coming back to the movie review:

Story: if I should say about Chinni Krishna, its the time for him to stop writing scripts! A worthless and stupid story narrated in a much more worst possible way…lets see what others did…

Screenplay & Direction: Withsuch a foolish storyline, VV Vinayakhas never tried to shoulder the responsibility of the movie, instead he always wastedhis vast experience (of working with big budget projects and experienced heroes inthe past) he utterly failed in shaping the outcome – there is no healthy comedy, sentiment, romance, proper action episodes (which is key to the theme) in Badrinath.

Dialogues: Strictly no powerful punches! RajendraKumar failed in framing sequence of dialogues which is the vital part for thesuccess of this genre movie. Always missing the feel of watching a grand bigbudget movie – another minus to the Badrinath!

Music: MM Keeravani,handled his department with ease and managed to score another success to hisbag! Though couple of sound bits were taken from Indra, Music and Re-Recording by theveteran Keeravani  is a certain plus for Badrinath.

Editing: Gowtam Raju mustbe on fear of shortening the length of the movie by scissoring all the useless scenesleaving few key episodes. But one can find many illogical and stupid scenesduring the complete run!! Gowtam should have worked on the project, startingfrom the day one for a better output. Even if he does that decent job, the length of the movie will become an hour and a half (at the max) without having any FALTHOO scenes!

Cinematography: Ravi Varman,another saver of the movie. Mr. Varman did a fabulous job of capturing fewbeautiful locations and scenes on his camera for Badrinath (especially thescenes involved in Badrinath). Both Allu Arjun and Tamanna were awesome onvisuals – the lead pair was shown much more beautiful compared to that of their past movies – with Arjun’s Six PackBody and Tamanna’s Milky White Skin – Show.

Art Director, AnandSai has done a decent job with respect to indoors but failed indesigning outdoor sets – but he did an amazing job for sets in songs.

Stunts by Peter Heins, mindblowing action sequences coupled with few utterly nonsense stunts, likestopping bullets-fired out of AK47 with a sword, fights in Air, hero jumping from the sky etc., turns him as a poor standardsStunt Master.

Artists Performances: 

Cast: Allu Arjun, Tamanna, Prakash Raj, Rao Ramesh Rao, KellyDorge, Ashwini Kalsekar, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu, MS Narayana, Raghu Babu,Krishna Bhagawan, Pragati etc

Allu Arjun was fabulous in songs and with his six pack body – performance wise he did 100% justice but in terms of choosing a subject he failed. Tamanna also commited the same mistake. But both of them got enough chances to prove their mettle with this flick.

Prakash Raj was shown on poor costumes and was given a very limited chance to excel as he likes to be. Rao Ramesh Rao and few others were wasted completely. Ashwini Kalsekar tried to prove her talent, but the lack of coordination ends up with no scope for  appreciation. Kelly Dorge was got confused. All the other comedians including Bramhi, MS, Dharmavarapu were failed to impress with their cheap comedy. 

Others were confined to their roles for a very little scope to expose.

Over all analysis: Starting from the first frame of the movie there are numerous flaws and mistakes which makes every intelligent audience irritating. The only entertaining quotient in the entire movie includes the Visual Songs and the mind blowing steps of Allu Arjun and Tamanna (their onscreen chemistry was excellent). 

My rating for Badrinath is 2/5

Allu Arjun’s Badrinadh is slated to release on 10th June 2011.

Its almost an year, Allu Arjun was seen onscreen (Vedam being his last release on June 4th 2010). As one of the biggest fans of Allu Arjun, I wanted to post this article to promote his 10th Movie Badrinath, the biggest budget movie (over 40 Crores) ever made by Geetha Arts!!

Though we have seen a disaster in the form of Jr. NTR’s much hyped Shakti, from a star producers company; The story of Badrinath is totally different with the extremely talented technicians teamed up to develop a flick that is ready to set new records in terms of collections for much deserved performer – Allu Arjun..

Lets see how is this movie planned for Allu Arjun:

No one would have expected that Arjun’s first movie Gangotri will become a huge hit, with the kind of costumes he was given and the way he was shown in it. But he created history by becoming the debutant hero with maximum number of 100 days centers (Gangotri – 100 days in 54 centers).

2003 Gangotri
2004 Arya
2005 Bunny
2006 Happy
2007 Desamuduru
2008 Parugu
2009 Arya 2
2010 Varudu
2010 Vedam
2011 Badrinath

Above list shows that Badrinath is his 10th Movie as a hero. Though Arjun is making movies at a very slow pace (only one an year), he never failed in impressing audience with his quality performance – he rocked all the way starting from Gangotri, Arya to Vedam..

Being the nephew of two of the big stars of Telugu cinema – Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan; Son of the ace producer Allu Arvind; Grandson of legendary comedian Allu Ramalingaiah; he has got solid filmy background. But Arjun never utilized any other external power to win awards (He just won only two prestigious awards – Winner, Filmfare Best Actor Award (Telugu) – Winner, Nandi Special Jury Award – both for his 6th Movie Parugu – and every movie critic knows that he excelled in it and deserves for the same) rather concentrated on his career to become a super star by learning varied topics of cinema – and now with his 10th Movie, Badrinath in his 10th year in the industry (his first movie, Daddy released 0n 4th October 2001), wants to show what he is…

Now comes the above mentioned background team of his – who has set all the required ingredients for a block buster & remarkable hit movie for him. Arjun is now a 10 year-10 Movie Old Telugu Film Hero who already tasted big success and have his solid fans base!

Chinni Krishna prepared a most powerful and suitable story for Allu Arjun (Story Writer of Gangotri – Chinni Krishna is actually ready with Badrinath script in 2004 itself and wanted to direct it. But could not able to do so and the project was shelved due to difference in opinion with the producer regarding a sequence in the story). Chinni Krishna in one of the interviews told that, “Had I changed the scene, I would have become a director by then, but since I believed the story I did not make changes. After 6 years, the same script is now taking shape under the direction of VV Vinayak on Allu Aravind’s banner.” About his 10 years of film career he said, “Making money is not my prime aim. According to me, it is not the quantity or money matters but the quality stuff that we provide. My main aim is that the audience should appreciate the stories provided by me to the directors and producers. Top film personalities like James Cameroon, Raj Kapoor, Bhagyaraj, etc., have inspired me to do quality films. Hence I did just 4 films in these 10 years.”
Revealing his life time ambition he said, “It was my life time amtbition to do a film with Aamir Khan with a script that would break the box office records of ‘3 Idiots’ and also win an Oscar award. Very soon I’m going to narrate the script to him.” One can imagine how would be the story line of Badrinath, from such an ambitious & stubborn writer!!

VV Vinayak, who directed Aadhi with Jr. NTR, Chennakesava Reddy with Balakrishna, Lakshmi with Venkatesh and Tagore with Chiranjeevi is all set to entertain the telugu audience once again with Allu Arjun in Badrinath. No doubt he is the best directors of tollywood. Is in’t it?

Peter Heins is still remembered by every movie audience for his best fight sequences, whether it may be in Chatrapathy or in Magadheera – which plays a crucial role in the success of the film! Peter does the best for Arjun’s Badrinath…

Anand Sai – See the Wallpapers, one can easily visualize his creativity from his past movies starting from Toliprema to Shakti. Anand Sai is the Art Director for 9 Movies of Pawan Kalyan & 5 Other Movies of Mega family i.e., total 14 Movies in the last 13 years starting from 1998 with Toliprema – that is the confidence megafamily has on Anand. Especially when the movie is a high budget one, audience can definetly expect more.

Cinematography – Ravi Varman, ISC, is a celebrated Director Of Photography of India. He has shot many award winning films in Indian languages of Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and English. Known for his realistic picturization and poetic framing sense, Ravi Varman began his career in Malayalam films. He won one of the prestigious awards, ITFA Best Cinematographer Award for Dasavathaaram (2009)

MM Keeravani – Already audio is released and 3 songs are super hit – Ambadhari, Chiranjeeva, Vasudhaara.. apart from others. His BGM really turns the movie like anything, just as in his Sye, Chatrapathi, Yama Donga, Magadheera among others. Surely he will repeat this magic with his BGM in Badrinath…

Allu Arjun with his 10 years of experience (Badrinath being his 10th Movie) wanted to show what he is. While Tamanna already started proving herself in south will surely put her best efforts in Badrinath to reach the top position in tollywood. Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, Shinde, Rao Ramesh, Dharmavarapu, Krishna Bhagwan, Tanikeella Bharani, etc., are already in the list of the best supporting actors. And remember, the record breaker – Allu Arvind is the Producer of this Movie who already spent over Rs. 40 Crore for the best end product.

Cast:
Allu Arjun & Tamanna – Lead Pair
Prakash Raj, Kelly Dorgee, Brahmanandam, Shayaji Shinde, Rao Ramesh, Dharmavarapu Subrahmaniam, Venu Madhav, Krishna Bhagawan, Tanikella Bharani, M S Narayana, Rajan Kapoor, Bharath, Rakesh, Harry Josh, Master Sai Koti, Sudha, Pragathi, Kovai Sarala, Aswini Kala Sekhar, Geeta Singh, Kalyani, Prabhakar, Adi Rajendra, Master Rhythm, Baby Anjali, etc.

Crew:
Banner: Geetha Arts
Presenter: Padmashri Allu Ramalingaiah
Story & Screenplay: Chinni Krishna
Story Assistance: Sri Vissu
Dialogues: Rajendra Kumar
Editing: Gautham Raju
Fights: Peter Heins
Arts: Anand Sai
Cinematography: S Ravi Varman
Music: MM Keeravani
Graphics: Makuta
Production Controllers: Babu, GGK Raju
Co-director: K Pulla Rao
Chief Co-director: Thota Ramakrishna
Executive Producer: Tagore Madhu
Producer: Allu Aravind
Screenplay & Direction: VV Vinayak

Having said this, Badrinath will certainly have the capacity to beat Magadheera Records! Lets see if Allu Aravind repeats his magic of creating new records!!

>Badrinath Audio may release on 7th / 8th May 2011

> Badrinath – Telugu movie is yet another high budget movie from Geetha Arts banner after Ram Charan Tej’s Magadheera. Chinni Krishna has penned the script and Allu Arjun has specially trained in Vietnam under Peter Heins for action episodes.

Badrinath audio release is also expected to be released on 7th / 8th May 2011 giving enough scope for publicity and promotional campaigns. VV Vinayak is directing Badrinath, produced by Allu Aravind under Geetha Arts banner. Tamanna Bhatia is playing heroine beside Allu Arjun and this is the first time Allu Arjun and Tamanna are coming together for an action romance movie, in which Allu Arjun plays an Indian Samurai.

Music for Badrinath being composed by Melody King MM Keeravani, made all the music lovers eagerly wait for the actual release date of the music-out.