Bunty Walia had plans to make a film on the battle of Saragarhi with Sanjay Dutt but the ongoing recession has put the Rs. 200 crore budgeted film on hold.
According to our sources, Bunty Walia has plans to make the film but right now the time is just not right to put in something as huge as 200 crore on a film. The industry is facing recession and the film requires a lot of man power and money. “But I don’t want to make any compromises and will definitely make the film with Sanjay Dutt in the lead and also get in 20 other big names. Even the director will remain the same that is Rohit Jugraj. I think it will take me another 6-7 months to go ahead with it. But yes as of now the film plans are on hold.” Walia has stated.
Walia is known to be amongst Dutt’s best pals, further added, “Sanjay Dutt too wants to do this film as he is the co-producer of the film. But right now he is managing his work and also planning his political strategy for his Lok Sabha elections so for the time being things are on hold. The shooting will be in Morocco as it will be the perfect location for the war which took place.”
Sonam posing with a dove (called Masakali in the film) on her head in Rakeysh Mehra’s Delhi – 6 has been creating a lot of buzz. It is heard that Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra auditioned nearly a hundred pigeons for this particular shot in the movie. But then he ultimately settled for a dove.
Sources inform that “Rakeysh Mehra needed to shoot a song with Sonam with a bird sitting on her head. He had tried pigeons but they used to fly away it was actually music director A.R. Rehman who gave him the idea to use a dove instead of a pigeon because he considered it a symbol of love. Rakeysh Mehra promptly asked for 12 doves on the sets. But ultimately chose this particular dove which came from Assam.” says sources.
“But the director had to shell out rupess 13,000/- per day for the bird in hand. Rakeysh Mehra wanted the scene as he had already scripted it and did not want to compromise on anything for the song” adds our source.
Whatever Akshay Kumar does, he does it with style. If he comes up with two huge money spinners in the form of ‘Singh Is Kinng’ and ‘Welcome’, his flops too never fail to make news. Last year it was ‘Tashan’, which in spite of being a failure went on to garner over 30 crores just from India box office. This year it is ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ which dropped miserably after the opening weekend but already has 30 crores in it’s kitty (from India). And yes, it is going to surpass the total of ‘Tashan’!
So what makes the two films special? Well, in spite of not managing to recover the money for their investors, the two films have created records when it comes to being the highest money spinners when it comes to films that have flopped. And we are not just talking about the current times; we are talking about the history of Indian cinema where these two films would find a place by being the only ones that crossed 30 crores milestone at the box office and still were labeled as flops.
Says a film maker who has worked with Akshay but wishes to be unnamed, “That’s the kind of pull that Akshay Kumar generates today. Even his flops make more money than so many other hits. No, let’s not take away from these successful films. After all they may have been made at a nominal cost and sold at a reasonable price considering the kind of star cast involved and budget they have been mounted at. Of course an Akshay Kumar film is costlier due to which both the profits as well as the risk quotient, whichever way the tide turns, is also higher.”
Last year when ‘Tashan’ had flopped, Akshay Kumar could deserve to laugh about it since first and foremost it had Yash Raj Films as the biggest name involved and secondly, it was a multi starrer with the likes of Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Anil Kapoor. Hence, each of the actors escaped all the flak. However, thing is different for Akshay in case of ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ since the film was completely sold on his name and star power.
“And that’s the reason why the opening was still decent”, says an industry insider, “Now if the movie by itself doesn’t carry much merits then there isn’t much that a star can do. This is why the opening of films like ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ and ‘Tashan’ have to be looked at closely. They tell a lot about the star power, not to forget the box office figures that have created records though not the kind that Akshay would appreciate in longer run.”