Sunday, March 27, 2011

Prasoon Joshi - National creative director

Five years back, this name would ring few bells. But as the Aamir Khan-starrer “Thanda matlab Coca Cola” ad campaign made the almost universal rural word for soft drinks a hot catchphrase, it brought the low-profile Prasoon Joshi, national creative director, McCann Erickson India, into the spotlight, a fact the the advertising awards for 2002 just reaffirmed. Yet for Joshi, advertising is just one passion. He is also a poet, lyricist, composer and a trained vocalist.

Predictably perhaps, the highly competitive ad industry was not charitable in its praise. Some believed that it was the Aamir Khan and film maker Ashutosh Gowariker connection that made the Thanda campaign work. Joshi himself hints that the magnitude of the brand Coke could also have made the campaign a huge success.

However, ad film maker Prahlad Kakkar asserts, “Prasoon is far beyond any singular campaign success. His writing and poetry will immortalise him in the years to come.” Says Shripad Nadkarni, vice-president, marketing, Coca Cola India, “What sets Prasoon apart in the make-believe world of advertising is his ability to connect to the masses through his understanding of the Indian psyche — he thinks Indian.”

This ability to think in Hindi has endeared him to the masses much like the other small-town admen — the Pandey brothers. Born in Lucknow, Joshi went on to earn his management degree from IMT Ghaziabad. His entree into advertising began when he worked, first, as a summer trainee and then as a client servicing executive at the ad agency Grey (then Trikaya Grey).

But copy-writing obviously suited his talents better so in 1992, he moved to Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), for what was to be a decade-long stint that saw him shift to Mumbai and rise up the ranks to become a creative director. However, in his own words, Joshi “had grown to reach a glass ceiling”. In 2002, Joshi shifted to McCann Erickson as the national creative director.

Joshi believes that creativity is an intangible energy that keeps reinventing itself in different forms. His career reflects that. A published poet at the age of 17, he has three collections of poems to his credit till date, and a fourth is in the pipeline. While Joshi the writer was creating copy at O&M, the narrator in him was also lending his voice to the commercials.

What followed were soulful voiceovers in the Nokia radio spots, the much-acclaimed cricket commentary in the “A day in a government office” campaign for the Times Of India, the erstwhile rain commercial for Asian Paints — “Chalak chalak jaaye mausam” — or the more recent campaign for Chlormint — “Dubaara mat poonchna”.

His identity as a lyricist won acclaim with his soul-stirring, feminist lyrics in Shubha Mudgal’s Mann ke Manjeere. Till then, he had penned lyrics for music albums like Silk Route’s debut album Boondein, Shubha Mudgal’s earthy Ab ke sawan. Inevitably, writing for Bollywood had to follow.

Joshi has penned lyrics for films like Lajja, Aankhen and Walt Disney’s Hindi Jungle Book III, which is in the making, among some others. And now he’s writing scripts for two forthcoming Bollywood films. “My interaction with the film industry helps me understand the masses better,” he quips.

Apart from films, Joshi is deeply involved in social awareness campaigns for foundations like the Cancer Patients Association and Amitasha (a foundation for the underprivileged girl child) and causes like polio awareness.

The print ad for awareness of child abuse for Amitasha, which shows a young, underprivileged girl and a possible victim with her mouth stitched, won industry acclaim. “Emotions cannot only build brands in India but can also awaken mass conscience,” he explains.

However, his advertising copy has shifted from its deep emotional tone to irreverent humour (Nokia, Asian Paints, Cadbury’s) to which the light-hearted “Thanda” Coke commercials, Alpenliebe and Chlormint commercials are testimony. “I think am travelling a full circle. In the end, advertising has to be entertaining and real to be liked,” he says.

Joshi seems to be irked by rumours of personal differences with mentor Piyush Pandey and is more wary of controversies. “According to the ancient Indian academic tradition, after the disciple grows, the teacher allows the disciple to go ahead and conduct his own concert,” he says. “That’s the best way to describe our equation. I am performing in my own concert now.”

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

PEEPLI LIVE receives the best music score trophy at Asian Film Awards

Indian Ocean, the well-known Indian band, won the Best Music Score trophy at the highly prestigious Asian Film Awards at Hong Kong for its score in PEEPLI LIVE, a film directed by Anusha Rizvi and produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao. It was India's official Oscar entry. The film came into limelight after it was selected in the world cinema section of Sundance 2010.

Though largely ignored by the celebrity driven domestic awards, the film was nominated in four categories of the most important awards in the Asian region. It was nominated in the best film, the best newcomer (Omkar Das Manikpuri), the best music score (Indian Ocean), and the best editing (Hemanti Sarkar), and it competed with the best of Asian films of last year.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's internationally acclaimed fairy tale UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES got the best film award. An exotic tale of death and reincarnation, the film was the toast of 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and was a hot favorite among international critics. It beat the two Chinese box office blockbusters of last year AFTERSHOCK and LET THE BULLETS FLY in the race. The South Korean film POETRY, another festival favorite, directed by Lee Chang-dong, won the best director and screenplay awards. It had also won the best screenplay award at Cannes last year. Ha Jung-Woo won the best acting award for his role as a contract killer in THE YELLOW SEA while AFTERSHOCK, a film based on 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China and its aftermath, brought its lead actress Xu Fan the best actress award. The long time producer of globally popular films like ENTER THE DRAGON, FISTS OF FURY, HAND OF DEATH and THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, RAYMOND CHOW, was given away the Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

The effects of the events in Japan were clearly felt during the ceremony as winners kept their speeches short. The absence of nominees and winners from Japan was acutely felt. The event's hosts and many award recipients expressed sympathy and condolences to the people of Japan and some even made donations to the charities involved in rescue and rehabilitation mission. Tatsumi 'Tom' Yoda, the chairman of the Tokyo International Film Festival, was present and he thanked the Asian Film Industry for its support and sympathy.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Bollywood goes balle balle

It makes you dance, it makes you sing, and it makes a great business idea in Bollywood. Punjabi music has taken the Hindi film industry by storm and is a sure-shot way to recover costs, say industry experts.

Punjabi numbers like Sadi galli, Rola pe gaya, Laung da lashkara and Ainvayi Ainvayi are sitting pretty on Bollywood music charts and are also a rage at weddings and discotheques.

“The craze for Punjabi music has always been there because they are mostly foot-thumping and groovy. They catch up very fast with people of all age groups. Earlier Punjabi music was big on the pop scene, but gradually Bollywood also got a good taste of it,” Krsna, who composed Tanu Weds Manu music, told IANS.

The Punjabi flavour in songs – be it lyrics or beat or melody – has been around for as long as one can think, but lately there has been a rush of them in Bollywood.

Popular singer Mika said: “Punjabi songs have always ruled the roost in Punjab, the UK and Canada…and in India, my elder brother Daler paaji (Daler Mehndi) started the trend with Bolo ta ra ra ra. the rest, including me, followed him.”

“I have always given my songs a Punjabi touch because that’s where I come from. Punjabi songs are very catchy and Punjabi is a very sweet language; so, that is also one reason why Punjabi songs are so popular,” he added.

The music of Tanu Weds Manu has became a hot favourite with songs like Sadi galli and Jugni, while the Patiala House music won hearts with numbers like Rola pe gaya and Laung da lashkara.

Yash Raj Films’ Band Baaja Baaraat also managed to hook music buffs to its title song, as well as the funky number Ainvayi Ainvayi, which features lead actors Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma.

Much before the Dharmendra-starrer Yamla Pagla Deewana hit the screens, the title song was a hit and every radio and TV channel was beaming it. Charha de rang, another song from the comedy with Punjabi flavour, proved to be a slow winner.

“The trend has been there for a while. I have sung so many Punjabi hits for films even before… like the Oye lucky! lucky oye song and also Mauja hi mauja from Jab we Met. They were chart busters, and so were the songs from ‘Singh is Kinng’. the kind of energy a fast Punjabi song has is incredible.”

In 2010, songs like Gal meethi meethi bol from Aisha, Tujhe Bhula Diya from Anjaana Anjaani and Dhanno from Housefull had a Punjabi element in it.

With the penchant for Punjabi numbers in films on the rise, it is boom time for singers of the genre.

“The trend is slowly catching up and now we see all directors and music directors wanting to have at least one Punjabi number in their album, and so singers like me have a good chance to connect with our audiences in Punjab too,” said Mika.

According to Bhushan Kumar of T-Series, it is a wise business decision to add a Punjabi beat to at least one song in a music album.

“Adding a Punjabi beat means giving it a chance to be played in discotheques, clubs and weddings, where it catches people’s interest and they start liking the song. the more they dance to it, the more people like it,” Bhushan, son of late music baron Gulshan Kumar, told IANS.

DJ Suketu agrees, saying, “In today’s date, music composers are aware that youth, clubs, wedding and private parties are an important segment to make music for. It helps promote the film as well as the music.”

Punjabi numbers have even made it big internationally through crossover films like Balle Balle Amritsar to LA, Monsoon Wedding and Bend It like Beckham.

Singers like Sukhbir, Jazzy B, Hard Kaur, Punjabi MC and Jassi should also get the due for taking the genre across the shores. They are known to fuse bhangra music with rap and techno to woo international listeners.

Disc jockeys like Suketu, Akbar Sami and DJ Aqeel are also responsible for popularising dhol beats through their umpteen remixes of Indian as well as international songs.

“I use Indian instruments and dhol beats when I remix tracks for international artists like Sean Kingston, Iya, Tata Young and Flo Rida for whom I have done remixes,” he said.

With such a success story, Punjabi flavour is here to stay in Bollywood.

Friday, March 18, 2011

‘I’m writing a guide to the Indian male’ says Cyrus Broacha

MTV is taking a new avatar, with changes in its content, to break from gaali-ridden reality shows, Cyrus Broacha tells Shana Maria Verghis, adding that he survived 15 TV years, despite his laziness.

TV host and actor Cyrus Broacha said that a lot of time he is, “prostituting myself, to pay the bills,” with public appearances in different avatars. And sometimes not doing anything very major. Cyrus was the sole reason we managed to sit through much of the Golden Kela Awards organised by Random Magazine, which he hosted. He appears on a satirical show on CNN-IBN and is working on a second book. “It is a guide to the Indian male.” Shobhaa De beware of competition in days to come.

Cyrus was in a shiny, grey suit that we could have used to light a dark tunnel. And at that moment, he was a few minutes away from digging into snacky eatables for fuel, before compering the show. Broacha said the book, Kal, Aaj Kal, which came out sometime ago, had two guys in the lead, treading on their not so light fantastic feet, through a world of films and politics. The narrative he had used was apparently “semi-autobiographical.” He was, “Remembering some very strange people that I have met, whom fate had turned into actors or a twist of circumstance transformed into leaders.”

Cyrus will soon be hosting a new reality show on MTV which he said, “has taken back the old team, to create aspiration levels for youth as brand value.” Enlighten us further Cyrus. He explained, “There will be a change in the guard at MTV with more emphasis on things like fashion. Not the relationship episodes where people spend their time hurling gaalis at each other.” He added, “Unfortunately, we all wind up watching those kind of shows. They are the flavour of the moment, like them or not.”

Cyrus, who told us MTV Bakra began while he was having a proper newsy interview with Bobby Deol, which turned into a comic interlude, that became a new idea, said it was true most Indian reality shows rehash material from overseas. “It is safer to use tried and tested formulas. But that is the state of our programming. In fact, it does not say much for Indian TV, that someone like me, who has no interest in work, has survived nearly 15 years in this business.” He added, “But what went wrong with our programming, was that MTV began to behave like a GEC (general entertainment) channel, instead of sticking to youth topics. I was in Dubai a few days ago and watching MTV there. Overseas, the MTV has stuck to youth content and doesn’t have anything that is vulgar on the eye. I remember years back, when I was interviewing kids on campus, one Hindu College guy swore in ‘MCBC’ style and we tried to bleep it unsuccessfully. We’ve come a long way since then to people like Rakhi Sawant who comment on topics like infidelity, that would once have been viewed as dangerous to our moral values.” Since Cyrus is himself a dad now, we said maybe he was repeating a familiar pattern of one generation turning self-righteous, after it grew out of youthful iconoclasticism.

“It’s possible. But when I said the ‘old team’ is back, I meant they want to tighten things up. And not turn them straight-laced. We want to bring new VJs in for instance. We haven’t had any hot females like a Malaika Arora for a long time.”

But isn’t the day of the VJ as an aspiration past its time? RJs are getting redundant too. “Overseas, VJs still have a role. Then they go into areas such as acting. Like Jessica Simpson. MTV US’ longest serving employee is Kurt Lorder. He was there for nearly 25 years, and he specialises in covering particular kinds of rock music.” Lorder was once editor at Rolling Stone. Cyrus continued, “But most of the veejays in US today work on a rotational basis.”

MTV will apparently have four or five new reality shows with some new content. Comedian Vir Das had said it was hilarious that participants put themselves through various forms of torture, only to get a bike in the end. Cyrus shared, “Sometimes you don’t even get a whole bike.” One show apparently had about “fifty bikes as gifts, but by the end, these were still lying around, because they had no engine! There were just shells. You were expected to take one to a factory and fix it up. I asked the producer, ‘Can I have a spare?’ When I heard about the process to go through, I said forget it.”

He wasn’t dropping names about forthcoming movie roles, but remarked, “I don’t know how the majority of people in films survive, because most of the time there is no work and you have to pay your bills. The top stars. A mere four or five, do things like cut ribbons at some public events. Then there are senior actors who have some bit roles. But what about those in-between? Life is hard. If you have a small family and you make two lakh for a film, what about the rest of the year? Sometimes you don’t even get paid when a film is made. Which reminds me that my book is coming out in a second edition, but Random House hasn’t paid me money for it yet!”

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Malaika Arora Khan's 'Munni Badnaam' reaches Guinness Book of World Records

Malaika Arora Khan's hot number "Munni Badnaam" from Salman Khan's box-office smash Dabangg has entered the Guinness Book of World Records! The sultry item number was a hit with fans and helped create a lot of buzz about the flick.

In Dabangg, Salman plays police officer Chulbul Pandey, who is described as "fearless, corrupt, lovable and a bad-ass Robin Hood." The action movie is set in Uttar Pradesh and tells the story of Chulbul Pandey, a corrupt police inspector.

Aside from Sallu, Dabangg stars Arbaaz Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Dimple Kapadia, Om Puri and Anupam Kher. But the real star is item number temptress Malaika Arora Khan who took the item number "Munni Badnaam" to a whole new level!

But how did it enter the Guinness Book of World Records? Well Malaika went to Melbourne in Australia where Indian Film Festival 2011 director Mitu Bhowmick Lange gathered 1200 people who danced to the track for three whole minutes! Considering the dance friendly beats of the tune, we are not surprised! Do you agree?

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Mallika Sherawat, Preity Zinta - Bollywood’s Maverick Actresses

Mallika Sherawat
From the dusty streets of Haryana to the slick boulevards of Hollywood, Los Angeles, Mallika Sherawat has come a long way. She made her mark with her ‘hot’ act in Murder, opposite Emraan Hasmhi, quickly making a name for herself in the nook and crannies of India. With a past that was, for long, muddled in controversy and intrigue, Mallika soon gave it all up and moved from strength to strength (or some may say controversy to controversy) doing films that required her to shed more clothes and do little more. Interestingly, Mallika silenced her critics with good performances in Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Ugly Aur Pagli, where fans got a glimpse of her funny side. She also wowed us with her sexy dance moves in the Maiyya maiyya song in Mani Ratnam’s Guru. In the recent years, however, she has appeared in extremely forgettable films like The Myth (a small role opposite Jackie Chan) and Hisss (where she plays a nagin!) But Mallika makes it to this list because of her sheer grit (she has been camping in Los Angeles for at least a year now) and her easy love for the social media.

Preity Zinta
For an army kid who stumbled into movies, Preity Zinta has had a chequered career so far. While she delivered many good performances and even hits, the younger heroines who entered Bollywood at the turn of the new millennium overtook Preity. Be that as it may, this actress has always stood her own, be it while defending her Indian Premier League team, Kings XI Punjab, or gracefully handling her break-up with her former beau, industrialist Ness Wadia. The dimpled actress has not been seen in a leading role for quite some time, but is a regular on the Bollywood A-list. She is also one of the few conscientious actors around. Remember when Preity, against all the odds, stood in the witness box in the Bharat Shah case?

Monday, March 7, 2011

Katrina and Ranbir to pair in Ayan’s next film

Rumours suggest that Ayan Mukerji has signed Katrina Kaif opposite his best friend Ranbir Kapoor in his next film under Dharma Productions.

According to a source, Katrina and Ranbir have been frequenting Ayan's residence in Santacruz. Even as Ranbir got busy shooting in Kashmir for Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar, the source says that Katrina has been catching up with Ayan quite regularly.

So, don't be surprised if this hot couple features in yet another film together.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Salman Khan and Asin refuses hot and steamy intimate scene shooting

Mar 2, Mumbai: Beautiful lass, Asin Thottumkal shot to fame, by making a dream debut in Bollywood, opposite Aamir Khan in “Ghajini”. She was already a craze in the south Indian film industry, and “Ghajini” made her popular in Bollywood too. Keralite Asin started acting when she was just 14 years old.

After the release of her second Hindi film “London Dreams” where she was paired opposite Salman Khan, news of Salman and Asin’s affair surfaced, but a while later this news fell flat. Now, that this hot onscreen pair is again working together for an upcoming film “Ready”, grapevine has it that both of them have got some steamy hot scenes together. But when Anees Bazmee was questioned about this, he commented “Ready” is a comedy film with no vulgarity. He makes such films that can be watched with whole family.

Bazmee included that there is an intimate song of Salman and Asin, but there is nothing raunchy in it.

“Ready” is being shot in Sri Lanka, although it was previously scheduled to be shot in Mauritius. The first schedule of the movie is 10 to 15 days long. The movie is produced by T-Series.

It seems media has goofed up the news of the duo doing hot scenes, which is nothing else than a rumour.