Desi Galaxy

I saw this movie last night. Simply it is the worst of all movies I have seen this year. It is a story of Indian and Pakistani families living in Western countries and witnessing that the cultural differences are taking their children away from their roots. Katrina Kaif is British Born Confused Desi girl who thinks that she is more Briton than the British. Her parents, particularly her father wants her to realize that she belongs to a different culture with a slightly different set of ethics. She travels to India with her parents where they try to find her an eligible Indian guy. They visit Hyderabad, Bangalore, Agra to see the Taj Mahal and then they visit Punjab. There they force her to marry Akshay Kumar, who is a village farmer. Finding no way out she marries Akshay Kumar and brings him back to London. Once in London she refuses to accept the marriage. Now Akshay Kumar will have to win her heart before she marries the white guy in her life.

Katrina Kaif looked exceptionally beautiful throughout the movie. So did London, the director spent a great deal of time showing the monumental structures, popular tourist destinations and night life of London. The movie would have worked on me if the director had spend some time on making Akshay’s character a little stronger, improving the dialog delivery of Katrina and Upen and decreased the scenes where white men occupied the party.

Music was below average. The only person who acted well through out the movie was Rishi Kapoor and Javed Sheikh. Javed Sheikh is a Pakistani actor and he plays the role of Pervez, father of Imran Khan (Upen Patel). Upen Patel has absolutely no acting skills at all and I cared less about his acting as I have said earlier that if he is going to roam around shirtless and half naked then I am going to forgive him for his bad acting skills. But unfortunately Upen’s shirtless scenes and his delicious brown body didn’t work that well. The movie was centered around Katrina Kaif and she did her best to look beautiful. I wish she had worked a little more on improving her dialog delivery and acting skills. The movie was branded as a romantic comedy and I failed to find both elements. The romance didn’t occupy the movie and comedy, well someone should tell Akshay that his hera-pheri kind of acting is not going to work for all movies.

Checkout ScreenIndia’s article ‘Bollywood Bows to Broadband‘. I really can not understand what these people are talking about. Are they talking about Bollywood becoming more accessible to NRI’s with credit cards and extra bucks to spend on movies? Or they really want to get profit from the huge market of 50 Million internet users in India. The tagline of the article says, “In India, low bandwidths often make legally downloading movies a tedious, time-consuming process”, but just like the CEOs of web ventures mentioned in the story, the story itself totally ignores the people in India.

For many Indians, high speed internet is still far away. Out of 50,600,000 Internet users, only 2 million has access to high speed internet (source: Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India). Indian state owned authorities define broadband as a 256 kbps internet connection. Some ISPs offering 64kbps bandwidth also label their dsl and adsl connections as broadband. Downloading full length Hindi movies on slower internet connections is lengthy process. Even watching the trailors on the web is difficult with dialup modems or slower dsl cable internet connections. Studios, Distributors and film-makers are mainly focused on providing the movies for NRI’s. There is a huge demand of Bollywood movies and music among Non Resident Indians all over the world. Most of them has access to faster, better and reliable DSL, aDSL or Broadband internet connections. Most of the time it is cheaper for them to download a movie rather than buying it on DVD or renting it. But in the hund for those NRI Dollars Bollywood has totally ignored local internet users the huge market of 50 Million subscribers.

The business experts in Bollywood who has ignored the potential of local market so far should now pay serious attention to gain money out of it. Most popular Hindi Movies and Bollywood music videos are easily available on Youtube. If you want to compete you need to provide the same content with better quality and affordable price. Recently Eros international and T-series sued Google for showing their copyrighted content on Youtube.

Most Indians using high speed internet from offices, work or schools spend their time downloading videos and music. Broadband availability would make it possible for content providers to reach out local market. It would be a great idea if content providers and ISPs join hands together to offer cheap dsl and broadband internet connections to Indian Market. Something like you pay for the Internet and get free movie or song downloads from popular Bollywood distributors. Bollywood and the entertainment industry in India really needs some great marketing and sales gurus to build a business that only brings them money but also bridges the digital divide in the country.

Preprations for IIFA Bollywood Awards in Yorkshire.

Uncle Chest 101 …You’ve heard me use the term repeatedly: Uncle Chest. Several of you have asked me to explain, “what is this Uncle Chest you speak of?” Well, I’ll explain…

Rediff has a little quiz to explain how Bollywood is one big happy family.

Suchitra Krishnamurti accuses Priety Zinta of having an affair with her husband Shekhar Kapoor.

KBC participants seek business Advice from Shahrukh Khan, “A few of the participants are in touch with my secretary. They have been sending e-mails to my office as well” Khan said.

I found some rare pictures of young Shahrukh Khan. These childhood pictures of Shahrukh Khan are collected from the web if you have childhood pictures of Bollywood stars please contact us. Click on images for larger versions.

The above picture was discovered by Mr. Roman Virdi, who attended Columba’s school in Delhi where Shahrukh Khan was studying in junior class. The picture was taken from Columban 1973 (the yearly school magazine).

This one shows Shahrukh Khan as a baby.

I recently wrote a post about Bollywood Tourism. South Asian Post reports that Percept Holdings is planning to start a $100 million ‘Bollywood Experience’ venture. The project includes Bollywood cafes, museums, a theme park, film set replicas, movie memorabilia, simulator experiences, 3D virtual gaming booths, a walk of fame Shailendra Singh of Percept Holdings told South Asian post that:

Bollywood is 75 years old and it’s time we show our pride of this rich heritage. Watch out, Bollywood tourism will be big business.

It is really a wonderful idea. I mean just imagine a Bollywood Museum where you can learn about the history of Hindi movies, the legendary artists who remained behind the camera and other aspects of Bollywood. Walking down the sets of movies that you have seen and seeing for yourself how these scenes were filmed. Buy DVDs of popular Hindi movies. This sounds like a hell lot of fun to me. I wish Percept Holdings get in touch with Incredible India project and gets their Bollywood tourism packages showcased there as well.

Tags: Tourism, Travel, Incredible India. Image courtesy: David Wilmost, Wimbeldon, UK.

He is one of the sexiest Indian male actors. He has a nice body, charming face and he is not afraid of going shirtless anytime. Thats what I love most about him. I mean it is ok, I understand that the censor policies and Indian culture doesn’t allow Bollywood to present Upen Patel naked. I am content with his shirtless pictures. I heard that he has worked for some underwear ad. I wish I could get the pictures of that ad. I am totally, lustfully, crazy about this sexy hunk. Click to enlarge images:

Courtesy: SantaBanta

University of Washington President Mark Emmert and seven other university and government leaders are on a State Department-sponsored mission to Mumbai and New Delhi, India.

Talking of Music, check out a Treat for Bollywood Fans, Melvin Rivera shares an NPR interview with legendary Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle on NPR’s Soundcheck. Asha talks about the 20000 Hindi songs she has sung so far, the Hindi film music, bollywood and her husband R.D. Burman.

Basab Pradhan writes an Open letter to the Bollywood Music Industry.

Most people want to buy music legally, if it is made simple and inexpensive for them to get it. Say this to yourself three times every morning after your morning prayers. And then think about your pricing strategy. There is a vast, relatively untapped appetite for Bollywood music amongst NRIs. If you just got rid of your pre-conceived notions.

[This post is part of Desi Galaxy’s Bollywood Challenge. A weekly quiz where you can test your knowledge about Hindi movies.]

“Yeh Shareer Zaroor ek Ghareeb ka hai Magar is kay andar jo aatma hai woh ek Raja ki hai”

Tell the title of the movie.

Hints:

• R.D. Burman composed the music for this movie.
• It has Asrani and Jhonny Walker in supporting roles.

Comment to submit your answers.