GABBAR KA GUSSA: KISNEY LAGAYI YE AAG?

ISKA JAWAAB HUMKO DEDE THAKUR

EVEN IN DEFEAT VARMA DOESN'T SHED HIS ARROGANCE: I HAVE HIT AN ALL-TIME LOW, I CAN ONLY MOVE UP NOW, HE SAYS

Ram Gopal Varma's remake of a cult classic is a box office flop, and Varma has drawn flak for Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, his ambitious remake of the 1975 film Sholay which nosedived at the box-office. The films tell the story of two reformed crooks who save a village from a bloodthirsty bandit.

"Every flaw the film is being criticised for is mine," said Varma. "I take full responsibility for my film. It is my vision that faltered from the script to the music to the songs."

The maverick director said he had hit rock bottom with the film's failure.

He also said he now believes his project was doomed to failure, as it ran into legal problems. Many critics also labelled his attempt at rehashing a blockbuster classic as stupidity.

"Everybody told me not to go ahead with it. The film then went into legal tangles. Characters needed to be changed, the title needed to be changed, and even the script to some extent.

"Now I think it was not wise for me to go ahead," he said.

Varma, known for his gangster movies and horror flicks, said he could only improve from now on. "I have hit an all-time low. I can only move up now," he said.

Varma's next film Sarkar Raj, a sequel to the hit 2005 film Sarkar about a megalomaniac politician, is scheduled to be released in December this year.

AKSHAY KUMAR TO STAR IN FIRST INDIAN FILM TO BE SHOT IN CHINA

Bollywood has joined hands with Hollywood major Warner Brothers for Made in China, the first Indian movie to be shot in China.

Shooting for the film, which will feature action star Akshay Kumar and model Deepika Padukone, will begin in January 2008, Warner Bros said in a release Thursday.

Akshay will play a lowly Mumbai cook who is mistaken for a martial arts hero in the movie to be directed by Nikhil Advani of "Kal Ho Na Ho" fame.

The script has been written by Shridhar Raghavan and the music is to be composed by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonca.

Shooting on location in China will mark a first for an Indian production, said Warner Bros, which is making its initial foray into Bollywood.

The movie will be produced by Ramesh Sippy Productions and Advani's Orion Pictures, while Warner Bros will distribute it worldwide.

Ramesh Sippy, the director of "Sholay", said: "At the turn of the century there was a lot of promise in the air about globalisation in Indian cinema and now with this venture, RSP and Orion are joining hands with Warner Bros, bringing that dream closer to reality.

"Certainly what we hope to achieve at the minimum is a greater knowledge and understanding of the workings and systems of Hollywood and the Indian film industry. And I am sure we both stand to gain a lot from each other."

Blaise Fernandes, country manager for Warner Bros Entertainment India, said, "We'll count on our partners' expertise and will do everything in our power to make a well-crafted, popular and successful Indian film."

RAM GOPAL VARMA WANTS TO DIRECT AN EROTIC FILM, NO NOT NOW, BUT SOMEDAY

He has explored the gory mob world and dabbled in the supernatural, but for Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma nothing gets him excited like refined erotica.

By Indian standards, Varma is unconventional, even bold, and he raised conservative eyebrows last year with a film about love between a girl and a man old enough to be her grandfather.

Like most Bollywood cinema, titillation is integral to his films -- mostly explored through raunchy dance numbers by the heroines. But Varma says if there was one genre of cinema he wanted to explore honestly, it was the erotic.

"I think I can capture the subject through my camera," the filmmaker told Reuters. "I would love to direct an erotic film someday."

And, in India, more often than not that would mean courting controversy. "I honestly don't care about it," he said.

The 45-year-old filmmaker, an acknowledged Bollywood master at making gangster movies, is no stranger to controversy -- be it making a Lolita-esque film or remaking a Bollywood classic.

Varma's remake this year of the landmark 1975 film "Sholay" (Embers) -- which he calls "Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag" (Ram Gopal Varma's Fire) -- first had critics denouncing the attempt at tinkering with classics and then it got into trouble for trying to use the original title.

Varma says the flak actually gave him strength to finish the film -- which is due out this year and narrates the story of two reformed crooks who save a village from a blood-thirsty bandit.

"I have never taken so much care with my other movies," he said. "When I went ahead with the idea of remaking 'Sholay', I knew it was a classic and somebody else's masterpiece which I should take good care of."

Bollywood is remaking a slew of classic Hindi movies, egged on by what it says is the creative challenge of packaging old blockbusters for modern audiences. But many criticize the trend, saying it reflects creative bankruptcy.

Varma disagrees. "It's a new work at the end of the day," he said. "I think there's nothing wrong with someone getting inspired from a masterpiece and then going ahead and trying to recreate the film's spirit in a new time and space."

The style and look of the remakes are also obviously new.

For instance, Varma in his remake of "Sholay" stunned Bollywood by casting Amitabh Bachchan in the iconoclastic role of Gabbar Singh, the merciless villain, while in the original version he was one of the two heroes.

Such is his passion for cinema that Varma, who made his directorial debut in 1989 and has directed 27 films, says he would be dead if he wasn't making films.

"I think I would have been a big failure," he said. "I guess I would have been too bored with life and may have possibly died too. Seriously, I cannot imagine my life without films."

NISHA KOTHARI UNPLUGGED: I REVEAL BECAUSE I LOOK SEXY IN A SHORT SKIRT OR HOT PANTS

ON HER PROPENSITY TO SHED CLOTHES ON SCREEN
I have a beautiful body and can carry any outfit with grace. If I reveal or do intimate scenes that's only because I am convinced the role needs it. The director has to convince me that the scene is required, and I know that I look sexy and not vulgar donning a short skirt or hot pants.


ON HER CHARACTER GHUNGROO IN RAMGOPAL VARMA KI AAG
It's a very peppy character. She is a tapori who puffs beedi (hopelessly imitating her favourite actor Rajnikanth), drives an autorickshaw (called Laila) and looks after her parents. People are bound to compare this character with Basanti played by Hemaji in Sholay, but though both have the same flavour -- they are entirely different in attitude, and have been treated differently. I am sure people will love me and my character.


ON WORKING WITH SUSHMITA SEN, AJAY DEVGAN, AND EMRAAN HASHMI
There was a time when I would dream of working with these stars and today I am sharing the screen space with them. It is like a dream come true. The best part is that these senior actors make the newcomer feel so comfortable on the sets that you feel you have been working for ages with them.


ON HER LOVE FOR DANCE
You just have to put on the music and I can break into a jig. I love to dance and sometimes when I am feeling low, I put on soft music and dance


ON WHAT SHE LOVES TO DO GENERALLY
I either play video games, work out or catch up with my sleep. I don't party at all. I am a traditional person and like to maintain a low profile. I have a long way to go and I am concentrating only on my work.

IS RAM GOPAL VARMA RENAMING THE TITLE OF HIS FILM SHOLAY TO RAM GOPAL VARMA KI AAG?

Has Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma decided to release the remake of yesteryear's blockbuster Sholay by changing the much publicised title Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay?
A high drama was witnessed on the issue on Wednesday in the Delhi High Court as Sascha Sippy, who claims to be the owner of the film Sholay cited a news report that Varma has decided to release the movie on July 13 by not only changing the title, but also changing the names of popular characters like "Gabbar Singh" and "Basanti".
The title has been changed from Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay to Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag and the popular characters Gabbar Singh and Basanti have been renamed as "Babban Singh" and "Ghungroo", Sippy's counsel Pravin Anand contended, referring to a report on a website. He said Varma's interview in this regard was aired on Monday on a national channel.
Justice Gita Mittal before whom a petition of infringement of trade mark and copyright on Sholay was pending against Varma, said if the change of title and name of character was acceptable to Sippy, it would end the issue of release of the film in question.
However, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar and Amit Naik, counsel for Varma, expressed ignorance of the interview and said they did not have any idea of any such interview on any channel.
In view of the conflicting statements by the contesting parties, the court directed them to take instructions from their clients and inform it about the facts.
Amit Naik, after brief adjournment, informed the court that his client (Varma) had not given any such interview. He said the film cannot be released as it would require a lot of promotional activities.
Following which Sippy's counsel decided not to raise the issue and proceeded ahead with the routine arguments to establish that Varma's film could not be released by using the title Sholay.
The court, in an interim order in October last, had stayed the release of Varma's much hyped remake of the 1970s' blockbuster Sholay.
The court was hearing a suit filed by Sippy Films Pvt Ltd and Sholay Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, owned by Sascha Sippy and Shan Uttam Singh, to permanently restrain Varma from releasing the film Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay maintaining the use of the name Sholay by any other entity amounts to infringement of trade mark and copyright.
The roadblocks for the release of the film in which superstar Amitabh Bachchan has assumed the role of "Gabbar Singh" came on a lawsuit filed by the grandson of G P Sippy, who had produced Sholay.
Sippy had contended that they also have copyright on the use of character "Gabbar Singh" which was played by late Amjad Khan in Sholay.
Sascha Sippy, director of the Sippy Films, claimed that the late G P Sippy's son Ajit Sippy who reportedly sold the copyrights to Varma, had no such rights himself to transfer the same to others.
The suit was filed after it was reported that Verma had began shooting the film titled -- Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay.
The suit said the use of names -- Sholay and Gabbar Singh -- by Varma also amounts to infringement of moral right as there was threat to destruction of original work.
He submitted that the script and screenplay of Sholay are the original literary works, protected under Sections 14 and 51 of the Copyright Act of 1957.


LINDSAY LOHAN PROMISES SHE'LL LEAD A QUIETER LIFE

SHOLAY REVISITED, THIS TIME IN THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

Gabbar sends Kaalia and two others to Ramgad to collect the loot-maar software he had ordered.

They reach Ramgad and start shouting: "Abe O Thakur! Kahan hai woh loot-maar software? Last date to kab ka nikal gaya".

THAKUR (wild with ragae): "Chillao mat! jaakar Gabbar se kah do ki Thakur software walon ne paagal kutton ke liye software banana bund kar diya hai."

KAALIA: "Bahoot garmi dikha rahe ho thakur? Koi naye programmers hire kiye hain kya?"

THAKUR: "Nazar uttha ke dekh, Kaalia, tere sar par powerbuilder chal raha hai."

Kaalia looks up and sees Viru (Dharmendra) working on a PC on one water tank and Jay (Amitabh) on a laptop on another.

KAALIA (laughing out loudly): "Ha ha... thakur ne freshers ko liya hai ye log programming karenge? In ko to DOS commands bhi nahin aate."

VEERU (shouts): "Chup-chaap chala ja kutte. Hum log consultants hain, kuch bhi kar sakte hain."

JAY (hits his keyboard, then says): "jaao kaalia, Gabbar se kahna ki uska server down ho gaya."

GABBAR'S DEN...

GABBAR: "Kitne bugs the?"

KAALIA: "Do sarkaar."

GABBAR: "Wo do! Aur tum teen. Phir bhi fix nahi kar sake? Kya soch key aaye ho? Gabbar bahoot khush hoga? Naya assignment dega ...aur increment bhi? Iski saza milegi... barobar milegi.

(Snatches an X terminal from Samba).

"Kitne sessions hain is machine mein?"

SAMBA: "Chhey sarkaar."

GABBAR: "Session chhey aur programmer teen. Bahoot naainsaafi hai."

(logout - logout - logout). "Haan ab theek hai... ab tera kya hoga Kaalia?"

KAALIA: "Sarkaar, maine aapka code likha tha."

GABBAR: "To ab documentation kar!