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Post by rose on Jun 14, 2014 10:38:03 GMT
I hope it's much more than a trend, and turns into the industry standard. But right now, I'm super happy with it. It seems like all the big actresses are finally bagging big top billing roles. In addition to the ones already out we have
Aishwayra Rai - Mani Ratnam Next - Jazbaa Sonam Kapoor - Khoobsurat (remake of a Rekah pic) Rani Mukherjee - Mardaani Priyanka Chopra - Mary Kom bio Sonakshi Sinha - A.R. Murugadoss's next Deepika Padukone - Finding Fanny (??) Anushka Sharma - NH10 (also producing)
And I'm sure we'll see more from Vidya, Kangana, and Alia* who've established themselves at the box office.
Now, of course, these aren't the first woman centric (WC) films ever. But I'm pretty sure this is the highest volume so far. And I find that past movies largely centered on ~a woman's pain~ as in:sex workers, fallen women, harrowing mothers. Not unworthy stories at all, but it's a limited scope.
*maybe? still not sure if Highway did acceptable or not.
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victoria
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 48
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Post by victoria on Jun 14, 2014 19:56:40 GMT
Kareena must be doing something (she always is), From the stories going around, Kareena turned down Sujoy Ghosh's next in favor of Singh is Bling and Singham 2. I think the failure of Heroine scared her off shouldering a film on her own. Aishwarya also has Jazbaa with Sanjay Gupta (possibly a remake of Salt), and Anushka is doing NH10, which I think is woman-centric? I think Sridevi and Madhuri are both developing films for themselves, as well.
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odadune
Star of the item number
not around much due to stuff in my personal life.
Posts: 1,494
Favorite actor: Currently a certain Kumar, but I like most of them
Favorite actress: whoever's in films I'm interested in this week
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Post by odadune on Jun 14, 2014 22:14:21 GMT
Victoria: All I've seen is her PR flacks' claim that she's been offered the Sujoy Ghosh film, the Bejoy Nambiar film, and Singh is Bling, and will only be able to accept two out of three. There's been some fans of hers in other places on the web being all DOOOM AND DESPAAAAIR and convinced she's accepted SIB and rejected the other two, but I've not seen anything to justify that belief. I am skeptical about her chances of ending up in an Akki/Prabhudheva movie, but I will save my thoughts on that for when I start a SIB thread.
As for the main topic: I agree that it's cool that we are finally getting a variety of female-centric projects, including fairly cheerful seeming films like Bobby Jasoos and Khoobsurat (although the latter is based on a film that's more of an ensemble piece about how the family reacts to the young woman). Bobby Jasoos's success or failure will be particularly important, because Vidya's been trying to find a balance between the edgier films and deeper roles that made her reputation and the fluffier (and more male-centric) movies that she made in the late 00s, and this looks like her best attempt to show that you can have it BOTH: quirky female-centric Hindie and humor and happiness. Mardaani's tricky because it's being presented as a fairly serious movie and is set to be released in the same late August slot (I think?) that killed Satyagraha last year.
The plot-related buzz about Jazbaa and the Mani Ratnam movie have made them sound so similar that I wonder if the former is simply the Hindi-language version of the latter. Or maybe I'm just being grumpy because I had a bad experience with Sanjay Gupta's last!
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Post by rose on Jun 15, 2014 4:11:24 GMT
Kareena must be doing something (she always is), but why isn't Anushka Sharma on this list? Dancelover Already said, but yeah, Kareena has pretty much decided to be #1 item girl and take arm candy roles She is in a bad spot, but I don't think that's the best way out.
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Post by rose on Jun 15, 2014 4:16:27 GMT
Kareena must be doing something (she always is), From the stories going around, Kareena turned down Sujoy Ghosh's next in favor of Singh is Bling and Singham 2. I think the failure of Heroine scared her off shouldering a film on her own. Aishwarya also has Jazbaa with Sanjay Gupta (possibly a remake of Salt), and Anushka is doing NH10, which I think is woman-centric? I think Sridevi and Madhuri are both developing films for themselves, as well. Oh, is Jazbaa confirmed? Awesome And I didn't even know NH10 was a thing! But yeah looks like it'll be her show because she's producing. Which is another thing, more women are producing too.
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Post by rose on Jun 15, 2014 7:29:38 GMT
Victoria: All I've seen is her PR flacks' claim that she's been offered the Sujoy Ghosh film, the Bejoy Nambiar film, and Singh is Bling, and will only be able to accept two out of three. There's been some fans of hers in other places on the web being all DOOOM AND DESPAAAAIR and convinced she's accepted SIB and rejected the other two, but I've not seen anything to justify that belief. I am skeptical about her chances of ending up in an Akki/Prabhudheva movie, but I will save my thoughts on that for when I start a SIB thread. As for the main topic: I agree that it's cool that we are finally getting a variety of female-centric projects, including fairly cheerful seeming films like Bobby Jasoos and Khoobsurat (although the latter is based on a film that's more of an ensemble piece about how the family reacts to the young woman). Bobby Jasoos's success or failure will be particularly important, because Vidya's been trying to find a balance between the edgier films and deeper roles that made her reputation and the fluffier (and more male-centric) movies that she made in the late 00s, and this looks like her best attempt to show that you can have it BOTH: quirky female-centric Hindie and humor and happiness. Mardaani's tricky because it's being presented as a fairly serious movie and is set to be released in the same late August slot (I think?) that killed Satyagraha last year. The plot-related buzz about Jazbaa and the Mani Ratnam movie have made them sound so similar that I wonder if the former is simply the Hindi-language version of the latter. Or maybe I'm just being grumpy because I had a bad experience with Sanjay Gupta's last! Worst case scenario, the audience feels they have their light hearted lady flick fill with Queen and pass on Bobby but I don't think that'll happen because, it's Vidya! She's I'm thinking Khoonbsurat will be re-modeled to focus on Soman's character. Looking at the cast and her other films lined up, it seems like the best candidate to really be her movie. I'll be honest, the only Sanjay Gupta I'm familiar with is the doctor when I first heard Ash was doing a movie with him I thought it was Dr. Gupta and didn't have words! I know they're both being called spy action flicks. But I'm sure Mani Ratnams will be more... nuanced
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odadune
Star of the item number
not around much due to stuff in my personal life.
Posts: 1,494
Favorite actor: Currently a certain Kumar, but I like most of them
Favorite actress: whoever's in films I'm interested in this week
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Post by odadune on Jun 15, 2014 13:48:15 GMT
Kareena must be doing something (she always is), but why isn't Anushka Sharma on this list? Dancelover Already said, but yeah, Kareena has pretty much decided to be #1 item girl and take arm candy roles She is in a bad spot, but I don't think that's the best way out. She needs to get in touch with her inner workaholic, if she wants to take over that position from Sonakshi "7am shoots are awesome especially if it means we can wrap up early, and btw I can get into and out of the makeup van in under 15 minutes" Sinha. #1 arm candy is a lot of hard work for not much thanks!
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Post by Dil Bert on Jun 15, 2014 14:07:32 GMT
Charmme: Anukokunda Oka Roju Mantra Sye Aata Mantra 2
Mumaith Khan: Maisamma IPS
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victoria
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 48
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Post by victoria on Jun 21, 2014 15:08:51 GMT
Not that I'm against anyone writing movies specifically centered on women, but it'd be nice if Bollywood started fleshing out their female supporting characters. Woman-centric films are seen as risky, but where's the risk in adding strong, multidimensional female characters to a story, even if it already has a male protagonist? It's not like it always has to be one or the other, there's a happy medium that could go a long way in improving actresses' position in the industry and portraying women as more than just arm candy.
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odadune
Star of the item number
not around much due to stuff in my personal life.
Posts: 1,494
Favorite actor: Currently a certain Kumar, but I like most of them
Favorite actress: whoever's in films I'm interested in this week
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Post by odadune on Jun 21, 2014 18:51:11 GMT
That's a good point; to my mind it ties with more of a general writing problem with the industry; most of the time when people are talking about poorly or sketchily written supporting female characters they're talking about movies where the male characterizations aren't that great either; sloppily executed romances that fall down on portraying both the love interests, or masalas where the villain and the hero are not necessarily any more developed than the heroine inspite of having five times as much screen time and a couple of fight scenes. The real gender imbalance issues show up most, IMO, in middlebrow films about middle-class male problems, of the Chetan Bhagat variety, where the woman is kind of a catalyst or bystander in the guys' travails; and with lowbrow comedies of the Sajid Khan school, where nobody's doing anything profound but the men get two hours to show off their comic timing and the women get twenty minutes to look glamorous.*
*In all fairness, I will note that Sajid is kind of an extreme case even within his genre; Anees Bazmee gives his ladies slightly more to do sometimes, and Rohit Shetty has a reputation for giving them rather more than that.
(Edited to come off as less overbearing).
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Post by dancelover on Jun 23, 2014 18:53:03 GMT
I "liked" this, but regarding Chetan Bhagat, please note that his novels are based on his own life, so of course they're male-centric. D That's a good point; to my mind it ties with more of a general writing problem with the industry; most of the time when people are talking about poorly or sketchily written supporting female characters they're talking about movies where the male characterizations aren't that great either; sloppily executed romances that fall down on portraying both the love interests, or masalas where the villain and the hero are not necessarily any more developed than the heroine inspite of having five times as much screen time and a couple of fight scenes. The real gender imbalance issues show up most, IMO, in middlebrow films about middle-class male problems, of the Chetan Bhagat variety, where the woman is kind of a catalyst or bystander in the guys' travails; and with lowbrow comedies of the Sajid Khan school, where nobody's doing anything profound but the men get two hours to show off their comic timing and the women get twenty minutes to look glamorous.* *In all fairness, I will note that Sajid is kind of an extreme case even within his genre; Anees Bazmee gives his ladies slightly more to do sometimes, and Rohit Shetty has a reputation for giving them rather more than that. (Edited to come off as less overbearing).
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HCB
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 15
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Post by HCB on Jul 11, 2014 17:32:24 GMT
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Post by rose on Jul 31, 2014 8:58:38 GMT
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Post by dancelover on Sept 11, 2014 16:02:55 GMT
Update: Mary Kom earned 27 crore the first weekend, 7 more Monday-Tuesday, might finish first week with 40, but needs 55 to break even. Mardaani, less expensive, made 30 its first week, might finish with 35, looks profitable.
Finding Fanny turns out to be a Five-Star film. Dehpika is billed 4th, after Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, and Pankaj Kapur, but ahead of Arjun Kapoor.
Dancelover
I hope it's much more than a trend, and turns into the industry standard. But right now, I'm super happy with it. It seems like all the big actresses are finally bagging big top billing roles. In addition to the ones already out we have [snip - d] Rani Mukherjee - Mardaani Priyanka Chopra - Mary Kom bio Deepika Padukone - Finding Fanny (??) [snip - d]
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sady
Hit playback singer
Posts: 1,876
Favorite actor: SRK, Prabhas, Naga Chaitanya, Nivin Pauly
Favorite actress: Kajol, Sonam, A. Shetty, Tamannaah, Kangana
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Simran, Rani of Jhansi, Veere Di Wedding, Padman, Saaho
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Post by sady on Oct 18, 2014 17:22:14 GMT
Kajol may star in the Hindi remake of the Malayalam movie "How Old Are You?". It would be produced by Ajay. Jyotika will star in the Tamil remake which will be produced by Surya. Here is a compilation of some woman-centric movies. I haven't seen all of them. For those where the actress shares the screen with a male counterpart, the woman has a strong role. Woman-centric films.xlsx (15.48 KB)
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