Thursday, January 29, 2009

Is Luck by Chance another Om Shanti Om?

January 30th, 2009

New Delhi : Is Luck by Chance another Om Shanti Om in the making? Around two dozen Bollywood actors and actresses would be visible in this Farhan Akhtar film being directed by his sister Zoya Akhtar. The film has among others the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, the two hottest Bollywood faces.

Om Shanti Om, a Shah Rukh Khan movie was a big hit of the year 2007. Not only in India but also in other markets the film did amazingly well. Om Shanti Om grossed 1.5 million pounds to enter the UK Top 10.

The film had created a record of sort by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release.

But the best thing about Om Shanti Om was the fact that it attracted so many Bollywood star. Almost all the leading bollywood actors made an appearance in the film.

It included Aftab Shivdasani, Amrita Arora, Arbaaz Khan, Bappi Lahiri, Bobby Deol, Dharmendra, Dino Morea, Govinda, Jeetendra, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Karisma Kapoor, Lara Dutta, Malaika Arora, Mithun Chakraborty, Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra, Rani Mukerji, Rekha, Ritesh Deshmukh, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Shabana Azmi, Shilpa Shetty, Sunil Shetty, Tabu, Vidya Balan, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and many others.

Zoya Akhtar has successfully roped in around 20 stars in the film. They include the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Dia Mirza, Vivek Oberoi, Boman Irani and others. And, to her credit, all these busy stars took time off their schedules to shoot for Zoya... but none of them charged for their appearances.

‘Lucky by Chance’ is about the journey of an actor named Vikram Jaisingh (Farhan Akhtar) who arrives in Bombay to make it big as a film star with the help of Abhimanyu (Arjun Mathur) a TV star friend, who puts him up during the initial struggle. Does he make it big? or does his struggle defeat him, and more importantly, does he pay his dues to the people who supported him when he was nobody, forms the basic crux of the story.

In the film Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia will also be seen in prominent roles and Rishi plays a Punjabi producer Romy Rolly. Konkona Sen Sharma appears in the role of a junior artist named Sona Mishra, with Hrithik Roshan playing the role of a superstar.

Zoya Akhtar, sister of Farhan Akhtar, said in an interview that she wrote the first draft seven years ago, lying on Palolim beach in Goa. In an interview she said ""I hand wrote it and it was some ridiculous, epic-length when I came back and transcribed it on my laptop. The first film is the easiest to write because it's usually what the person knows their personal graphs, milieu and feelings. Luck By Chance is not about established actors, but those who are waiting for things to happen. Farhan's character is fresh off the boat, while Konkana's does bit roles, looking for a big break." The production team went through a host of names, like Madhuri Dixit, Saif Ali Khan, Kajol, Karisma Kapoor and Tabu.