Indian Lens Loves Indian Locales

Indoor and outdoor locations do not merely create a beautiful backdrop. They also provide with a beautiful canvas that is colored with story ideas. Sometimes, it’s not the director’s skills or the soulful music that go into the making of a blockbuster. The cinematographer’s depiction of locales leaves a lasting impression in the people’s minds.

Locations play such a powerful role that they can enhance the overall impact of the film. In today’s times, filmmakers create an aura of authenticity by imparting the appropriate backdrop to their cities. In Kahaani, the lens romances Kolkata’s emblematic images of the Howrah Bridge, Durga Puja and Victoria Memorial. So thoughtfully were they shown that they became an intrinsic part of the film. Like Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi have also had their moments on the big screen. A number of films have revolved around them.

Some among our B-town films have been camping in nondescript villages and towns of India. They are benefiting from the qualities that the simple, charming and cost-effective locales are bringing to them.  Horror films and thrillers, for instance, are introducing the national audience to the face of the cities where danger lurks in street corners and mystery unfolds within crumbling buildings.

Mani Ratnam's Raavan is said to be a modern interpretation of the epic Ramayana. The film wouldn’t have been so visually attractive without Athirapally forests in Kerala, Ooty in Tamil Nadu, Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata, and the Malshej Ghats in Maharashtra: places that the cameraman’s lens fell in love with. Kareena Kapoor’s dance on Yeh Ishq haye in Jab We Met created magic in Ladakh and other sequences of the film were shot in diverse locations, right from ganne ka khet which was shot in Chandigarh to the slopes in Shimla and Manali.

Kangana Ranaut and R. Madhavan in Tanu Weds Manu sat pretty on a charpoy in a village in Kanpur. Udaan was filmed in Jamshedpur, Peepli Live in Uttar Pradesh/ Haryana and 3 Idiots in Ahmedabad followed suit. Ludhiana’s famous fort Sarai Lashkari Khan is the place where some of the most popular scenes of Rang de Basanti were shot. Riteish Deshmukh and his reel-turned-real life partner Genelia D Souza’s Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya was shot in various locations of Patiala. Not only that, many Hollywood directors have been helming their movies in our national locales such as the Dev Patel starrer The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that was shot in Rajasthan and the Julia Roberts starrer Eat, Pray, Love which had sequences shot in Haryana. Prakash Jha’s Aparahan filmed in Bihar was released in 2005. Jha’s romance with small towns continued with Rajneeti, Aarakshan and the soon-to-be-released Chakravyuh that was shot in Bhopal.

In recent times, the authenticity of the locale has acquired more importance than ever before. The recently released Gangs of Wasseypur directed by Anurag Kashyap is another such example. It would have been impossible to depict the film’s atmosphere without setting camp at Wasseypur in Dhanbad. And then, of course, there are period films like Paan Singh Tomar, which took the plot to places like Chambal and Roorkee. Ishaqzaade in which Arjun Kapoor played a grandson to the patriarchal grandfather and the actress Parineeti Chopra was a small-town girl living in a house full of overprotective male members was largely shot in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh.

One doesn’t have to belong to the film industry to know that shooting in these locales is cost-effective. Permissions can be sought more easily, while crowd management is infinitely easier. However, while less expenditure, authentic locales and imparting genuineness to the characters are significant considerations, this approach has more to it. Filmmaking, at the end of the day, has a direct link with the heart. Many filmmakers of our industry hail from some of these small towns. Hence, they get an opportunity to showcase their hometowns through their films. What is nice to see is they’re all giving us a chance to connect with our roots too.

Music Forever

With Hasta Hua Nurani Chehra, Laxmikant-Pyarelal became the virtuoso for zillions of music buffs. Popularly known as LP, they rose to conquer, inseparable souls who were born to create miracles and to make a difference in Indian music industry. They grew to the top and stayed there longer than any other music composers. Musical duo had the finish and edge to make music lovers go week and engrossed in their tunes.


Being one of their admirers, I got the thriving opportunity to meet Pyarelal recently. I spent two continuous discussional afternoons at his home which was truly a learning ride of my career. From struggles to achievements, from gurus to companions, from violin to piano, from private to public and from studio to home, all were the part of our earnest conversation. In the course of time, shook a leg with their rockstar, mithu (the parrot), His ever caring wife, Sunilaji also took me to the unseen phases of their lives. Funnily, she thought that if I am a South Indian. Pyareji has always been treated as an institution and whose work can be cashed when you hear their creations. He played, ‘ek pyar ka nagma hai’ on piano for me and also he got nostalgic while showing his yesteryears’ photographs. Let’s unfold some magic and visualize his best moments.

Early Phase

For Pyarelal, the journey from his childhood to where he is now has not been easy but all his hard work paid off. Pyarelal was born on September 3, 1940. His father Pandit Ramprasad played the trumpet but wanted his son to learn the violin. At age of eight, Pyarelal, started training, would practice for more than ten hours every day. At the age of 12, he got a job at Mumbai's Ranjit studio as a violinist in an orchestra.
Anthony Gonsalves was his guru who taught him violin, on whom he later composed a song, My name is Anthony Gonsalves in Amar Akbar Anthony. 

Bosom friends

He can’t forget that day at the Ranjit studio when Pyarelal met his lifelong companion Laxmikant. "Laxmikant was working with Pandit Husnlal Bhagatram. He would come sometimes to my place of work. After work, we would play cricket, discuss music and go to the studios of several musicians. As we were from the same age group and our interests were similar, our friendship grew," he said.
Sriramchandraji called me one day and told me he will give me good work. I told Laxmi about it. We worked together in Chennai for two and a half years on the film Devtaa. And this added value to our work and from here we never looked back.

“Moreover, people often thought that Laxmikant Pyarelal was one name. When I was getting married, my wife's relatives believed she was getting married to Laxmikant Pyarelal. Just Pyarelal did not mean anything to them," he queered.

"After the demise of Laxmi, I never thought my right hand has gone; what would I do without him. I was strong enough. But I fell sick after his death and fall into bad habits. I was in bed for six years. Since then, I have given up alcohol. Now I am fine and work for six hours everyday and there are several things in the pipeline.”

Killer opportunities

Now that he was on his way to become the big man he dreamt to be, Pyarelal wanted to go to Vienna to join the Symphony Orchestra. But things didn’t materialize at last moment.

We had recorded the songs for ‘Chhaila Babu’ earlier but that was released after ‘Parasmani’. Our past two canned films were ‘Hum, Tum aur Wo’ and ‘Piya Log Kya Kahenge’. And he hummed ‘piya log kya kahenge’ tune which they later used for ‘Dosti’ and it brought filmfare for them. (*sings ‘Piya log kya kahenge’ to the tune of ‘Aawaaz main na doonga’ from ‘Chahunga main tujhe saanjh savere’)

 "During those days, you had to purchase a coupon to select a movie for a Filmfare award. One who can purchase most coupons could win the award. We were the most amazed of all. I thought the music in ‘Sangam’ was so rich and beautifully composed by Shankar-Jaikishan, I believe it all to be the blessings of Saraswati Mata. Though, Pyarelal gives all credits to Lata Mangeshkar for their success.

Incomplete without Lataji


Lataji have a great share on making us what we are today. She was so simple and supporting that she never denied working with us which resulted into so many fabulous songs. Our first recording was ‘Hansta Hua Noorani Chehra’ where Lataji and Kamal Barot sang that song. For Lataji’s ‘Satyam Shivam Sundram’ title-song, we had used more than 100 musicians and even for Mukeshji’s ‘Chanchal Sheetal Nirmal Komal’ we had employed almost 130 musicians with more than 70 violins!
We also made Lataji to sing cabaret for us, Lataji was aware that we would give best input while composing cabaret in Inteqam for her. In ‘Aa Jaane Jaan’, we tried to bring in that kind of soft rendition style in the cabaret genre and Lataji was outstanding in that. She breathed life into our tune and the song was also conceptualized well on the screen through Helen.

Favourite maestros’

For Pyarelal, there is no better male singer than Mohammad Rafi. Kishore Kumar and Mukesh were also in his favorites list.
He said, “My father had once taken me to Rafi saheb's house to ask for money during our bad times. Once I was working with Rafi saheb and Lataji on the song ‘Yeh dil tum bin lagta nahi hum kya kare’. I remembered that I had to give Rs 500 to both of them. Rafi sahib didn't recall giving me money, Lataji did. But they told me to keep the money as their blessing for me.” "Kishore Kumar was very humorous. As he entered the studio, he would sing hello Laxmikantam Pyarelalam.” he said.

He cannot forget to mention, R.D. Burman, who was easily the finest mouth organ player in the industry. Pyarelal adds “Our careers all began at about the same time, and we indulged in healthy competition while staying the best of friends. Nobody could have composed ‘Padosan’, ‘Kati Patang’, ‘Mehbooba’ or ‘Teesri Manzil’ but him. I challenge anyone to top those scores.”


Music makeover

Today trends of composing music have been changed due to arrival of electronic instruments. At present we are living in digital age, where new and high-tech technologies are introduced in music production. Even whisper and sound of breath can be captured with accurate precision.

I admire many singers of today’s era, like Sonu, Shreya, Sunidhi, Mohit, Sukhwinder and Udit, Sanu, Kavita, Alka from 90’s were the best. I remembered once, Shaan came to my place with his father and sister. I asked him why don’t you sing and he denied that time. Now, see he is one of the finest singers of our industry.

Amongst the music composers he said, “I like the tunes of Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Salim Sulaiman, Shantanu Moitra, and many more. I liked A R Rahman work in Roza and Bombay. I keep learning from these young talented composers, they are doing fabulous job.”

Current affairs


In 2008 October, I conducted an orchestra of 188 musicians in Paris. Director Shaad Ali had presented a show on Bollywood in India Festival over there and for that we were playing our songs. And various musical tours are in pipeline, one is in Dubai early 2012.
In Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om- song ‘Dhoom Taana’, too, I had conducted over 100 musicians. "Vishal-Shekhar came to me; they wanted LP's music," Pyarelal said. "They wanted me to do just one song -- the type of music that was played in the 1970s; a retro song. Though, they wanted me to give music for first half of the film. They had made the tune but wanted the LP trademark in it."
 "One of the reasons I accepted their offer was the importance given to acoustic instruments," the composer continued. "There is nothing electronic in this song." Hope to get more such opportunities to relive the LP trademark.

Silver Screen @ 100

Time has come to raise a toast to Indian celluloid that’s a century-old. It’s a moment of great national pride and glory for all cinema lovers. Significantly, completion of 10 decades of movies is creating a buzz in the land of cineastes.


Lights, camera, action!


It was an era where working in cinema was a taboo, where a man with vision and courage made it possible. Mumbai’s affluent crowd had no idea of witnessing something ground-breaking. Minus sound everything was perfectly set on April 21, 1913, at Olympia theatre where Dadasaheb Phalke premiered the first ever full-length film, Raja Harishchandra. A silent movie based on the legend of King Harishchandra, enumerated in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, it was released on May 3, 1913.

Indian film industry that Dadasaheb gave birth to inadvertently with his first film enters its centenary year, India is ready to pay an abiding tribute to the date he immortalized with the first public screening of the maiden full-length Indian feature film. In a nation, where more than 1,000 films are made every year, in multiple languages, when we celebrate a century of filmmaking excellence, how do we define Indian cinema?

Indian cinema encompasses regional films (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Punjabi etc) but the larger stake comprise of Hindi film industry. Larger than life movie sets for candy floss romances salted with lavish song-dance sequences shot in exotic locales, spunky underworld flicks, bone-tickling comedies, well-crafted offbeat cinemas, jaw-dropping action capers to social melodramas and titillating stories -- the Indian movies have just about touched every genre of entertainment.

Everything is so fascinating here, from top grosser blockbusters to multiplex movies tailor-made for overseas Indians, to colourful crossover films with NRI connect high on emotional content to tug at the heartstrings of homesick Indian diaspora, the platter is dynamic and diverse.

Fraternity Action

Here's an ode to every individual who strives to make that virtual space seem to be a part of our daily lives. A documentary is being made as a tribute to celebrating the 100 years of cinema, four distinguished filmmakers Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Dibakar Banerjee will be making 20-minute short films each based on Bollywood. The four documentaries are being made under the banner of Flying Turtle Films which will give varied taste under one maincourse and will be later clubbed and released as an 80-minute documentary film, titled 'Bombay Talkies'.

According to a leading film website, Zoya's documentary has planned is titledSheila Ki Jawaani and narrates the story of a young boy and his obsession with the song Sheila Ki Jawaani. The film will unfold the tales of all the popular item numbers and how peppy and raunchy songs have become over the century. Zoya's film features Katrina Kaif and also an in-depth interview with Ranveer Singh. While Anurag's film untitled yet, but it is confirmed that Priyanka Chopra will be a part of it. Karan Johar and Dibakar haven't started work on their projects yet.

Government Action

From this year onwards, the National Film Awards will be given away on May 3 every year. At the 59^th National Film Awards ceremony in New Delhi, Ambika Soni, minister for Information and Broadcasting, said, "There are a few interesting projects to commemorate the centenary of Indian cinema. We are planning to open a museum of Indian cinema. The museum will be in Mumbai, in the heritage building of Gulshan Mahal. It will be ready before May 2013." 

The museum will showcase the history of the industry and its global impact. It will be a storehouse of information, artifacts, equipments like cameras, editing and recording machines, projectors, costumes, photographs and other material. The properties, dresses, sets, tapes, vintage equipment, posters, copies of important films, prints, promotional leaflets, developing equipment books, biographies, sound tracks, trailers, transparencies, cinema magazines and statistics covering film distribution are also expected to be displayed in a chronological manner.

 ‘Climax’ Action

Let the festivities begin. The journey from silent films to contemporary cinema has been amazing and that becomes a part of our heritage. From producers to directors, from exhibitors to distributors, from actors to villains, from musicians to technicians all are basking in glory of magical century of Bollywood. The Indian film industry will celebrate 100 years of its existence in 2013. The Indian cinema story continues… The Indian film industry continues unabated.

Sex is No Longer a Dirty Word in Indian Cinema

Does sex sell everything everywhere? Perhaps, sex sells everything, everywhere and everytime. What is surprising is seeing who succumbs to its pressures and bowls over the brazenness.

Until now, sex was only inkled at - cut to flowers dancing in the breeze or birds necking or thundering and lightening of clouds. Blink and you 'll miss, Sex was almost absent from the mainstream Indian cinema. But now Indian cineastes are in for a shock; a string of films featuring previously taboo story lines, explicit dialogue and sex scenes are hitting the country’s silver screen every month.

Nudity is still not the cup of tea of our directors as to maintain the decorum of family films, but a lot of kissing, condoms and rampant female sexuality takes them a world away from the coy, fluttering eyelashes and mercuric adayein of yesteryear.

I don't think today's youngsters would prefer watching a kissing scene hedged by flowers. A good item number, certain blue dialogues or scenes that grab eyeballs work in favour of a film. Earlier it was either the siren's role to show some skin or cabaret artistes like Helen doing special numbers in sexy outfits.

No prizes for guessing that actors don't mind raising their hemlines or getting steamy onscreen. After Malaika Arora Khan, Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone's item songs, viewers are again ready to dabble into the sea of special numbers. One of them is Chikni Chameli of ‘Agneepath’, with frisky Katrina Kaif and people are looking forward to for titillation.

Why does the Censor Board have different norms for reality shows and films?

In my opinion, Giving A or U/A certificates won’t deviate the viewers now a day. Moreover, adult rated movies garner more interests in box-office. Film appreciation has changed. Not all the films are targeted at families. In fact, in many families, kids and parents go separately for the same film. Even the censors are becoming more liberal and lenient. Bollywood and Censor Board share a love-hate relationship. Sometimes Bollywood is not happy with Censor Board norms and sometimes Censor Board raises their eyebrows on Bollywood films. Now Karan Johar's upcoming film ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’ starring Kareena Kapoor-Imran Khan has come under the watchful eyes of Censor Board. Since KJo's film uses the word 'Sex' with the highly vigilant Censor board objecting to it has asked the filmmaker to remove the word from the trailer in order to procure a U-certificate.

On this imbroglio, KJo quipped, “Both censor and I have a same problem. Well, we don't have sex life.” Similarly, director Sudhir Mishra was miffed with the Censor Board when he was asked to drop the word 'saali' from the title of his movie ‘Yeh saali zindagi.’

Earlier Times

Le'ts dig into the history of Indian cinema as well. The coyness of Bollywood underwent considerable change in the 1970s when B.R. Ishaara made ‘Chetna’, a hard-hitting take on a hooker (Rehana Sultan) and her lover's (Anil Dhawan) vain efforts to rehabilitate her.

Another 'bold' spin-offs, including Ishaara's ‘Charitra’, which introduced Parveen Babi as a call girl, and 'Bazaar Band Karo', and also Feroz Chinoy's 'Do Raha' and Vijay Kapoor's ‘Call Girl’ remain trendsetters.

Mumtaz’s ‘Aaina’, her farewell performance before marriage, was awesome. A simple rustic Brahmin girl who becomes a sex worker in the city to support her large family is spurned by them when they get to know of her means of income. In Gulzar's ‘Mausam’, Sharmila Tagore gave an award-winning performance as the streetwalker Kajri who ends up trying to seduce her own father. In Lekh Tandon's ‘Doosri Dulhan’, Shabana was the white slave who rents out her womb to a childless couple. In the same fashion, Tabu- Sushmita Sen starrer ‘Filhaal’ was presented, keeping the backdrop of surrogate mother.

The most wanton and blithe brothel movie of the last century was Shyam Benegal's ‘Mandi’ where a star studded gallery of super-talented actresses - Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Neena Gupta, Ila Arun, Aneeta Kanwar and Soni Razdan; captured all the angles with recklessly breathtaking performances. Instead of being coy or raunchy, ‘Mandi’ preferred to remain satirical about the flesh trade.

Recent Times

Known for its bold attempts, Bhatt camp movie, ‘Jism’ broke the mould with a strong lead woman who unashamedly uses her body and her sexuality to get the men in her life to do as she wants. Model turned actress Bipasha Basu’s acting career was salvaged after her intimate scenes with her ex-boyfriend John Abraham in this movie. Konkona Sen Sharma-starrer ‘Mirch’ was endorsed as the India's first erotic film. Also, Mallika Sherawat was touted the most upfront celluloid sex symbol of Bollywood when her movie ‘Murder’ was released. Her smutty, erotic and tongue-wagging moves in all her movies left us salaciously stunned.  Last year released ‘Love, Sex Aur Dhokha’ thrived on its bold theme, bawdy dialogues and titillating scenes. 

Our serial kisser of Bollywood, Emraan Hashmi was seen in ‘Murder 2’, which revolved around the dark world of prostitutes, cross-dressers, pimps and stuffed reel of lewd scenes. A lot of steamy action is always guaranteed in his movies and we bet the same and the title also suggests for his recently released ‘The Dirty Picture’.

Upcoming saucy flick ‘The Dirty Picture’ is freezing everybody’s eyeballs due to its unforgettable rollicking music, the lusty kissing, raunchy dialogue and no-holds-barred story lines which caters a refreshing eye-opener for Indian viewers.

If Shah Rukh Khan and sex had sold earlier, the latter seems to have won the round for now! Bollywood filmmakers especially the GenX directors take on bold themes and use abusive language liberally in a bid to depict reality. In a competitive industry where numerous films release every week, item numbers and double-entendre dialogues perhaps help a film attain its USP and obviously this makes a film more saleable.

Some actresses who romanticized the image of the sex worker beyond all norms of the flesh trade.

Nargis in Adalat

Vayjayntimala Bali in Devdas

Suchitra Sen in Mamta

Meena Kumari in Pakeezah

Rekha in Umraon Jaan

Tabu in Chandani Bar

Namrata Shirodkar in Vaastav
Madhuri Dixit in Devdas

Neha Dhupia in Julie

Priety Zinta in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke

Rani Mukerji in Laga Chunri Mein Daag

Bollywood’s Festive Fervour

As it stands, when festival comes it brings people together outside to enjoy movies, music fests, county fairs, carnivals, religious observations and to name a few. The Industry who keeps their eyeballs steady for the most anticipated festivals of the year is Bollywood.  Apna tinsel town takes no time to fasten their seat belt and takes movie geeks for the roller coaster ride especially when the crowds are at high-fever pitch during festivals. You cannot hold your adrenaline rush when the bigwigs of Indian Film Industry ready to woo you on-screen during Festive-Freaky-Friday.

Movie makers always keep their hawk eyes on the festive season as most of the films released this time are the top grosser of B-town. Now the trend in Bollywood is to book the dates of release in advance like Salman-Katrina Ek Tha Tiger is slated for release on Eid 2012 and Aamir Khan has announced to release his much awaited action flick in Christmas 2012. I would like to add this with instances of superstitions, If you though a perfectionist likes Aamir Khan would not need to resort to such beliefs, then you are mistaken. The actor is in love with Christmas, he want all his releases to hit the theater during this lucky time. That’s why after Taare Zameen Par, he scheduled the release of Ghajini and 3 Idiots during the December festival. Again, Aamir Khan starrer – Dhoom 3 is hitting box-office on next Christmas .

Similarly, Salman Bhai is very particular about his Eid releases. His popularity seems to be growing by leaps and bounds every year. If we will rewind his career graph and take a gaze at the box-office performance of the actor’s last three Eid releases: Bodyguard (2011), Dabangg (2010) and Wanted (2009). STUNNED!

This keeps up Bollywood with the belief that festival times are big money spinners. Another big festival, Diwali promises to be more critical for Bollywood than any other and producers always braces up for huge releases. Diwali, Oct 26, which will see the release of Shah Rukh Khan's long awaited Ra.One. This festival has been the most favoured time-period to release a big-banner movie.

The next year will have Karan Johar's remake of Agneepath, featuring Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra and Reema Kagti's Dhuan, starring Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji and Kareena Kapoor, both hitting the box office on auspicious Republic Day, Jan 26. Although they are trying to settle down with different dates, so that movie can garner the most in the public eye during their respective releases. 

Sometimes the movie’s release in mid-week instead of the traditional Friday, allowing for longer weekend viewing than usual due to certain festivals fall in between the weekdays and this add more paisa to the box-office.

Festivals in India have traditionally been a time for big-ticket releases. And often with some of the biggest stars whose professional rivalry added cartridge to the fireworks of the festive week, who can forget Om Shanti Om (SRK-Farah Khan) -- Saawariya (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) battle of 2007, the Don (SRK) and Jaan-E-Mann (Salman Khan-Akshay Kumar) tussle of the year earlier are just some examples.

There are also other festivals and national holidays which witness bumper releases. Also in India everyday you will come through one or another festival but everytime film becomes a reason for a get together and to assemble your dear ones. So, it is true that Bollywood’s cracker always lasts with more light and sound to spread happiness among us.

I would like you to take through memory lane of all the big releases of the decade during the festival of lights. Few were really enthralling blockbusters which are still ruling in our hearts and few bite the dust. So, get ready to give your ratings.

Golmaal 3 and Action Replayy (2010)

Blue, All the Best and Main aur Mrs Khanna (2009)

Golmaal Returns and Fashion (2008)

Om Shanti OM and Saawariya (2007)

Don and Jaan-E-Mann (2006)

Garam Masala, Kyun Ki and Shaadi No 1 (2005)

Veer Zara, Aitraaz and Naach (2004)

Pinjar, Inteha, Kagaar, Raja Bhaiya and Sssshhh (2003)

Jeena Sirf Mere Liye, Annarth and Waah Tera Kya Kehana (2002)

Tera Mera Sath Rahe, Ye Zindagi Ka Safar, Deewanapan and Abhay (2001)

Mohabbatein and Mission Kashmir (2000)

Cashing in on Controversies

Star power, big banners, youthful scripts, fresh faces, chartbuster music, unseen stunts, out-of--box creativity, innovative marketing strategies, reality checks are the be-all and end-all for a blockbuster. All these elements make a winning combination, making the cash registers sing like a canary.

With intense competition at hand every Friday when several movies are released, the film that has an extra edge promises to be a box-office success.  Controversy helps the pre-release publicity, and is a recurring feature of each and every film.

So, what’s the most important ingredient to make a blockbuster?

Create ingenious controversies to sail through at the box-office.  Today, Bollywood and controversy have an inextricable link, and the relationship seems to be for keeps. Marketing and production crew adopt this effortless and facile strategic formula at the films’ pre-release. Seldom controversies have a life of their own, and that eventually goes in favour of the movie.  Such rows have a compelling pull for the views to make a beeline for the turnstile.

In early days when digital medium were at its nascent stage, artists used their magical brush to paint film posters. Posters and banners were the only ways to promote the movie. Later, TV, radio and loudspeakers took up the publicity mantle.

Nowadays, the producers have started a novel way of promotion, where leading stars participate in reality shows on TV. And in a similar way, TV channels also hope to boost their TRPs. News channels are in the same race. They invite a leading actor or a director on primetime to chat and promote a film.

While some of the rows may have a basis, many still pander to titillation and cheap popularity stunts. Recently, the release of Shahid Kapoor-starrer Mausam was delayed by a week because the Indian Air Force objected to a few film sequences. Last month, when Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan was released; several state governments like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab banned the movie as it delved into quota raaj in Indian education system, a taboo topic.

Prior to that, Ragini MMS and the first trailers of Delhi Belly were controversial for varying reasons. Real-life Ragini threatened to sue Ektaa Kapoor, producer ofRagini MMS, for basing the film on her life story.

Delhi Belly courted trouble for its lyrics, dialogues and overall look and feel.

Aamir Khan, the producer and ace marketing brain behind Delhi Belly, planned negative promos to hog the limelight. Khan’s other recent films like Fanna, Peepli Live and Dhobi Ghat thrived on controversy-fuelled publicity. And, his shrewd marketing acumen left his detractors awe struck.

Dancing diva Madhuri Dixit's comeback vehicle Aaja Nachle had hit a roadblock in Uttar Pradesh because of one of the songs’ lyrics had used the word mochi that evoked outrage from people belonging to that community. A similar problem was faced by Kaminey director Vishal Bhardhwaj, who had to chop teli from one of his super-hit tracks. Filmmakers of Dhobi Ghat and Billu Barber also faced problems while releasing their movies.

Plagiarism is another stick to beat with.  For instance, music composer Ram Sampath dragged director Rakesh Roshan and his brother Rajesh Roshan to court, alleging that they duo had “directly lifted” his music for the Krazzy4album. 

Jo Bole So Nihal earned Sikh religious leaders’ ire for denigrating their faith. Similarly, Sing is King was decried by the Sikhs community.

Deepa Mehta’s Fire incurred the wrath of Hindu zealots because the film portrayed a lesbian relationship between two rejected wives, essayed by Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi.

The screening of Bombay and Black Friday based on 1993 Mumbai serial blasts was withdrawn from cinema halls, fearing widespread protests and violence.

Besides several movies have been banned like Parzania, Sins,  Ek choti si love story, Gangajal, Bandit Queen, Girlfriend, My Name is Khan. Each of them either touched some sensitive issues or crushed sentiments of a few communities.

Controversy may be the best way for successful promotion of a film, but it doesn’t guarantee box-office success.