Archive for October, 2006
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
Tumahara naam kya hain Basanti?
Ghungroo
Tumhaari ghodee (Hinglish: Horse), Dhanno ka kya naam hain?
Laila
Tumharee ghodee ka transformation kaise hua?
Don't know. But this is not a ghodee you idiot. It's an autorickshaw
Sorry Basanti... err... Ghungroo... and sorry Dhanno... err... Laila... When did all these changes take place?
A few days ago.
Errr... where did these changes take place?
At Ram Gopal Varma's Sholay
Errr... how can I confirm what you speak is the truth?
Idiots like you can go and read the truth here at DNA.
Errr... any more surprises?
How would I know? Even I'm surprised by my name change, my horse changing to an autorickshaw and its name changed to Laila from Dhanno.
Errr... I guess you won't need the stick to lash your horse to ...
Posted in Bollywood | 15 Comments »
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
Sirjee, Sirjee, Sirjee... we are in trouble... we are in trouble... our lives are in danger!!!
Betelal... Pick up your pyjamas from your ankles. Tie the "nada". Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.
Sirjee... Your divine suspicions are right... we... we... live in a secret undercover dictatorship and not in a democracy.
That I know Betelal. Tell me what happened that has opened your eyes, ears and your dumb brain to this fact.
Sirjee, I was watch the Indian News Channel "Aaj Tak" and they showed Uma Bharati commanding her bodyguard to shoot a protestor. She is virtually caught on tape saying "Shoot that Man"... This from someone who is campaigning to becoming the Chief Minister... we are doomed Sirjee we ...
Posted in Lens Eye View, News Catch | 4 Comments »
Monday, October 30th, 2006
My networks engineer is leaving on a month long leave. My boss doesn't have a damn replacement. The urgent request to get a temp is lying somewhere at the bottom of the pile of emails he religiously collects each day. Does my VP of MIS even know what shit we are getting into?
Actually he's no different from 99% of the people who make things happen in the cinema industry. Example? Come on do you need examples? Really?
The one thing that cheers me up on Monday morning at the most boring place on Mother Earth (please don't scratch your head - that boring place is my Office) - is to read exciting news of new projects coming out of Bollywood. ...
Posted in Bollywood | 6 Comments »
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
Saturday night was spent with Sumeet, T! and Rohit (of Naachgaana who dropped in for dinner)... it was fun, but then fun brought in too much drinking, which lead to my 24 hour ban on smoking going out of the window and picking that stupid cigarette again, to we all dropping in and out of clubs in Fullerton Downtown... honestly I don't even remember how the hell did I get the energy to pull Sumeet and Rakesh, my roommate out of the beds at 3 am in the morning and along with T! drive to Denny's for breakfast... I was dead... but I wanted to eat... guys were pleading to let them sleep... but I wouldn't have none of it... ...
Posted in Talk Radio | 8 Comments »
Friday, October 27th, 2006
Arrive early morning at work. Did not shower. And I'm angry at myself for this. Emails in my box from DT and PFC readers. A half hour later I've gone through most of them.
Today's the day. The Allen Carr seminar - to become a non-smoker forever. A bit excited, a bit nervous.
Jump to PFC. Anurag's new article. Hooked - line and sinker. Now I have no freaking idea about what is taught in film schools on underwater shoots. But hell... mind's racing around, Anurag jokingly asks for ideas and I'm seriously (albeit stupidly) throwing my ideas in the comments section. I don't care. It's a fun place to be in, nothings stupid, nothings concrete. I like the flexible ...
Posted in Friday Masala | 4 Comments »
Thursday, October 26th, 2006
When is the fate of a movie actually sealed, stamped and delivered? After the first show? The first weekend? The entire first week? Or just the first day?
Many facts about different movies will support different views. Sholay and Munnabhai MBBS were sad starters. Destined to doom. Infact there was an emergency meeting at Amitabh Bachchan’s house after Sholay was released and the first week response was less that encouraging. Ideas were thrown in. One of the them, I dare say, was to change the climax. Yes. Amitabh’s death scene. Change that to keeping Jai alive.
Mercifully that did not happen as things changed and word of mouth was enough to take Sholay up, up and up.
And then there are ...
Posted in Bollywood | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
This is so fucking addictive. Since morning, I’ve done nothing. Nothing. NOTHING. Besides, clicking on PFC and checking the latest posts and comments. Damn it! VP calls “oz, how about having the meeting today?†It’s the monthly meeting I have with the VP. But the posts on PFC are too fucking addictive. Vice President can go to hell. “VP, I have a major emergency at one of our locations, some servers need urgent replacement… lets do this tomorrowâ€
Major Emergency? The only fucking emergency on my desk is my hand subconsciously moving the mouse over the refresh button every 5 seconds.
Have to do something and get away from some FUCKING PRETTY EXCITING DISCUSSIONS… so much so that I missed writing something ...
Posted in Announcements, Life Flava | 11 Comments »
Monday, October 23rd, 2006
I've been receiving a lot of emails in my "personal" account. Yet strangely many of the emails do not belong to me. I swear.
Cause there is no reason an attorney would email me the strategy to escape "alimony". For the simple reason that I've never been married. Secondly I would never enter into marriage without a Pre-Nup.
Then a famous porn site confirms by email a 12 month membership and reminds me that my username is BigDickBangaroo and password is : ItisHard247 - which is good, cause now I can watch porn for free at someone's expense for the next 12 months. I don't mind calling myself BigDickBangaroo for the next 12 months.
I don't know of any friend who emails ...
Posted in Technology | 5 Comments »
Saturday, October 21st, 2006
It’s difficult to find a central location in SoCal (Southern California). An apartment/house which is in walking proximity to the mall, blockbuster video, Walmart, Grocery stores, Desi stores, 24 hour Fitness and hot blondes floating in the community swimming pool. It’s next to impossible.
But Farhan Akhtar has it all. Cinematic genes, films injected in his blood, a father who once was the sultan of screenplays and now is the king of lyrics, an army of craftsmen waiting at his beck and call to carve out his latest ideas into movies, a mom who literally grew up in Bollywood, a first movie which dared to defy the conventional dhishum-dhishum Bollywood story telling, a second movie which may have had good intentions, ...
Posted in Bollywood, Movie Reactions | 12 Comments »
Thursday, October 19th, 2006
Bags packed. All items checked on my travel list (don't laugh, I always make a travel list). Typing in replies to a dozen work related emails. Squeezing in replies to the 50 odd emails received on PFC. Over two dozen requests to join the PFC writing team. Map Quested the trip the San Jose. Printed it out. Called R&D to get modifications on the travel route by MapQuest.
Thinking about the long drive. Gawd! that is a long drive. Close to 400 miles. 6 hours. I'm so not a driving person now. What happened? I used to love long drives. Not anymore. Atleast not if I'm the one who's doing all the driving. Many lovely memories of long drives back in ...
Posted in Life Flava | 9 Comments »
Thursday, October 19th, 2006
Almost choked on my early morning coffee. I thought I was bad at casting, but the team of Sholay just surpassed me.
Ramu Kaka in Sholay. Remember? Satyan Kappu playing the loyal servant to Thakur - Sanjeev Kumar.
Guess who may end up playing Ramu Kaka in RGV's Sholay...
Hold your breath...
It's....
Chunky Pandey...
Yes dear reader... it's time to stand up, walk out of your cubicle, walk the stairs up to the top floor of your office building. Get on the terrace. Go to the edge of the terrace. And then let yourself go... scream... FUCKING HOW STUPID CAN STUPID GET!!!!!!!
Posted in Bollywood | 20 Comments »
Wednesday, October 18th, 2006
Just got this. From Midday, the Bombay newspaper...
==========
Anurag blogs on No Smoking
By: Tushar Joshi
October 19, 2006
Spent yesterday waiting for John to get free from his meeting. Saw the Thai-Cambodian-Hong Kong movie Dog Bite Dog. Outstanding. Face/Off meets Old Boy…â€
These are the opening lines of Anurag Kashyap’s blog, www.passionforcinema.com, a site dedicated to discussions on movies.
The Black Friday director has created an online diary to capture the everyday angst, joy, frustration, excitement and other emotions that have gone into the making of his film No Smoking, starring John Abraham.
Catharsis
A self-proclaimed blogger, Kashyap says he prefers sharing his personal accounts of moviemaking with others because it’s therapeutic. “I’ve been blogging under different names for ...
Posted in Bollywood | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
A crazy day at last came to settle down again by this morning. The initial storm of Anurag starting his diary on PFC, caught me unawares. By the time I reached my work completely unaware of what the unlucky talented writer in Bollywood had started on PFC, I opened the email box, and a flood of messages started pouring out on my screen.
It went all crazy from there on. Besides rushing to set up the “No Smoking†category, (which I had avoided on purpose to keep the whole thing a secret until AK wrote his first post), to firing up the Photoshop to quickly make a JPEG about the whole No Smoking section to replying emails at machine gun ...
Posted in Bollywood, Lens Eye View, Life Flava | 5 Comments »
Monday, October 16th, 2006
In case you haven't noticed it yet, Anurag Kashyap, yes "the" Anurag Kashyap (Satya, Kaun, Shool, Paanch, Black Friday) is writing his diary on Passion For Cinema. The diary will record his day to day experiences, thoughts, views, highs and lows during the making of his latest project No Smoking... I'm being jammed by emails - my Gmail is going fucking crazy with new emails popping up!!!
Just to let you know - this would be the first Movie Diary that an Indian director will be recording online for his fans...
Anurag, Thank You so much...
Posted in Announcements, Bollywood | 10 Comments »
Sunday, October 15th, 2006
Thanks to t! for getting Eddie Avil (Bassist and Songwriter) of Pralay on the show.
And thanks to Eddie to taking the time to come and talk to us. Quite a few eye openers on the indie rock scene in India. And I didn't know that there is practically zero interest in music companies to back indie rock bands, which is why bands like Pralay directly market their songs to U.S. and U.K.
Eddie was having difficulties in calling on to the show (he was calling from Bombay), so we had t! call him and conference it on to the radio show. Fortunately for us it all worked out fine. Eddie managed to get on 30-35 minutes into the show.
Surprise call from ...
Posted in Music, Travel & Dining | No Comments »
and excited for the june...
