Command Performance

Bollywood king Shah Rukh Khan has a simple aim: to put a smile on his fans' faces at home and abroad with his films, the actor tells P. Ramakrishnan.

"I don't know if the Hong Kong audience will identify with our style of action - bu it has that element of humour and thrills"

Shah Rukh Khan, of Chennai Express.

It is hard to measure the magnitude of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's fame and popularity. Long known as "King Khan" for his box office drawing power, there are fan sites dedicated to him in Asia, but even fans from Estonia, Mexico, Chile and New Zealand wax eloquent about his dimples, his hair, the intensity of his eyes and his smile.

Thanks to subtitled and badly dubbed DVDs that reach far-flung frontiers, there are few places on earth where that face and tousled hair aren't recognised.

When asked about his broad appeal, Khan says, "I have never tried to analyse my fans, why they love me, why they want my picture … I'm just glad to have them. Whenever I travel and see the response and love, I am humbled. I just want to hug them all."

If he didn't have his arm in a sling, the Indian superstar probably could have hugged thousands of his fans from Hong Kong and elsewhere who saw him in Macau last month. As he walked, bracketed by beefy bodyguards, into the Venetian Macao to co-host the 14th International Indian Film Academy Awards, the fanatical frenzy he inspires was difficult to miss.

Shah Rukh Khan & Deepika Padukone in Chennai Express

Not bad for a father of three who turns 48 in November and who first erupted into the national consciousness as a TV star in the military themed tele-drama Fauji ( Soldier) 25 years ago. With appearances in more than 75 films since making his cinematic debut in 1992, the Indian Muslim actor's next appearance will be in Chennai Express, whose worldwide release is timed to coincide with the Muslim festival of Eid ul-Fitr.

Chennai Express is an over-the-top action-comedy about a man's journey from Mumbai to a small Tamil Nadu town and what happens along the way after he falls in love with the daughter of a crime boss. The film is expected to do exceptionally well in India and the overseas Indian (non-resident Indian) market on which Khan has an unshakable grip. Khan stars in a staggering seven out of the 10 highest-grossing Indian films of all time in the overseas market, and an impressive 12 out of the top 25.

"There's no one to beat Shah Rukh Khan's magnetic draw," says Sunil Datwani, who has bought rights to several of Khan's flicks over the past decade to show Hong Kong cinema-goers. "Of course the South Asian community comes out in full force, but there's even a Chinese Bollywood fan club. And several British and American fans you can spot in the crowd."

Within the Indian film industry as well, his contemporaries are in awe of the actor, who has turned romancing with a strumming guitar and outstretched arms into a signature art form of its own.
"I was a huge Shah Rukh Khan fan when I first met him and did my first film," says his Chennai Express co-star, Deepika Padukone. "Now, even after meeting him several times and working with him the second time around, I'm probably a bigger fan. He is just … amazing. Just … wonderful," says the actress, who made her film debut in Om Shanti Om (2007), which was produced by and co-starred Khan.

Khan brushes off the praise. "When I hear such things, it's nice but they are being too kind. They are wonderful actors and it's just their affection for me that translates into their kind words."

As Chennai Express' release date nears, its lead actor doesn't sound anxious about how the film will be received. "It is a Rohit Shetty [directed] film, and he makes these big, big movies, and the stunts and action are just amazing," Khan says. "I'm a huge Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee fan. Even without subtitles, I can sit and watch their films for the comedy and action. I don't know if the Hong Kong audience will identify with our style of action - but it has that element of humour and thrills. I hope they … enjoy it too."

Khan, who won several acting honours for the dramatic My Name is Khan (2010), knows his latest film's surreal antics and slapstick will not be everyone's cup of tea.

"When I do a serious film like Chak De India ( Go! India), Swades ( Homeland) or My Name is Khan, there is a realism to the performance to go with the style of the movie. If I did that in a film like Chennai Express, it would be completely out of sync," he says. "You mould your performance and character according to the movie - as any actor would."

And are there any fears of the film not getting into the club of films grossing 100 million rupees (HK$12.7 million) at the home box office? "None," he says with quiet confidence. "The figures are irrelevant. I just want to do better movies, better roles; work harder every Monday when I hit the set to make as many people happy as possible. I don't count the money a movie makes, I want to count the smiles that audiences have when they leave an auditorium."

Chennai Express screens at UA iSquare from Friday

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Command performance

Chennai Express
In Hindi with English Subtitles
Aug 9 (Fri) 21:50 (IMAX)
Aug 10 (Sat) 21:50(IMAX)
Aug 11 (Sun) 18:30 (IMAX)
Aug 12 (Mon) 21:30 (House 2)
Aug 13 (Tue) 21:30 (House 2)
Aug 14 (Wed) 21:30 ( House 2)
Tickets: HK$150-$200
Venue : UA iSQUARE, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tickets at Morning Star, Tel: 2368 2947


Produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Red Chillies Entertainment, Chennai Express will hit theatres worldwide on Eid - 9th August 2013.


Flashback: My first interview with Shahrukh Khan when he came to HK here.

Bad intentions: Producer, Director, Actor Farhan Akthtar's Don: A Remake

Forget the schmaltzy musicals, thanks to maverick filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, Bollywood has fallen in love with the ultimate anti-hero. P.Ramakrishnan talks to the man behind action blockbuster Don 2.


"If your mother knew what you had done, she'd shoot you herself," says an exasperated inspector in an undisclosed Kuala Lumpur prison, confronting the master criminal.

"You didn't know my mother," grunts the tattoo-covered, muscle-bound Don, the hint of a wicked grin escaping his lips.

It took the penmanship and directorial moxie of screenwriter, director, actor, singer and lyricist Farhan Akhtar to turn actor Shahrukh Khan, 46, gleefully bad on celluloid. A return to form, "King" Khan (as he's known by the Mumbai media, for his unprecedented box-office success) plays the bad guy with relish once again in Don 2. The King is Back after years of whisking away leading ladies in song and dance.

"In the first film, we had played against prototype," Akhtar, 37, says of the 2006 movie Don: The Chase Begins Again. "We let the bad guy get away with it. He killed the hapless hero, he murders the leading lady's brother and the audience was in on it. They enjoyed the fact he got away with it in the last reel - and we didn't justify the 'badness' of the character. There was no psychological cause, tormented background nor redeeming factor about Don. He was just bad - and liked being bad."

The open-ended conclusion hinted at a sequel, but the filmmaker clarifies: "Honestly speaking, when we wrapped up the first film, we seriously didn't consider it. But psychosomatically, it came about. Everywhere we went, people kept coming up to me and asking when the sequel was coming out.

"While we worked on other projects, Ritesh [Sidhwani, the producer] and I kept thinking about it. So we sat down with two other writers and fleshed out a plot about two years ago. On a trip to Germany back in 2007, Berlin's untapped cinematic potential [made an impression] - it's a city meant for panoramic cinema. So we kept that in the background, too."

Given the success of its predecessor, expectations were high, so the trick, Akhtar says, was learning how to keep an audience interested.

"The viewer is already wise enough to know that there's a twist coming, so the hurdle we had to cross was to keep the audience second-guessing," he says. "It's the nature of the film and the genre; so we had to create enough sequences and surprises to keep the audience at the edge of its seat at multiple turns. The fan base already knows he's going to get away - but how? And then to make it plausible - well, cinematically plausible."

Sequels are often derided as pale imitations of the original, exceptions being The Godfather: Part II and one or two others.

"In India, we have the opposite; people look forward to sequels. There's a ready-made audience that already knows the characters [the main leads are back for Don 2], so each successive film gets a larger viewership - the curse of the sequel doesn't worry us."

Indeed, Akhtar sounds remarkably calm in the lead-up to the opening of his latest big-budget action caper, which comes in the wake of Khan's much maligned film Ra. One, which was released in October. Ra. One recovered its enormous cost - such is the popularity of Khan - but the media panned the bloated, special-effects-laden movie.

"I'm not at all worried in that aspect," says Akhtar. "We've been in the business for long enough to not let what 15 critics say affect us too much."

The son of legendary Indian poet and writer Javed Akhtar (who has an unprecedented 14 Filmfare awards - the Indian equivalent to the Oscar) and former actress and award-winning screenwriter Honey Irani, if not by genetic predisposition (his sister, Zoya, is also a writer and director), then by sheer osmosis the raspy-voiced son was to the writing-manner born. When asked about his hefty literary lineage, he says, laughing: "Thankfully, I live under no pressure from being born under the shadow of my parents' vast achievements.

"Fortunately, we [Farhan and Zoya] have been left to our own devices and have a huge support system. There's no pressure to meet their records. The benefits have been endless, we can talk about films for hours, as well as politics, art, literature. There was no expectation to follow anyone, to amass the trophies. They want us to do well - like any other parent."

With his first film, Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Akhtar established himself as a game-changer. A hit with the collegiate demographic, the Hindi production captured the zeitgeist of Indian youth who were cosmopolitan, wealthy and idle - his three protagonists spend a lot of time on the beaches of Goa. The rom-com has characters with devil-may-care attitudes who nevertheless find their bearings.

Akhtar then went beyond the boy-meets-girl Bollywood musical template. His second film, Lakshya, traces the life of an aimless student who makes his mark as a soldier. It may not have set the box office on fire, but, as most critics noted, Akhtar was the man to watch.

Then followed Don, a remake of a 1978 film.

"When I saw the original Don, which was written by my father and Salim Khan, I remember being a little scared of the character," says Akhtar. "[Amitabh Bachchan] was the bad guy, who was the lead and unapologetic about it. That stayed with me. So when the opportunity came to bring back the subject, it was an exciting option.

"In the Hindi film industry, we're used to pigeon-holing the leads: the all-around good-guy hero, the virginal heroine, the skimpily dressed vamp, the pipe-smoking villain. The boundaries are set. This was an awakening; you get to break the rules."

Akhtar based his reboot loosely on the original but brought it into the new century with a polished veneer, a remix of songs from the 1970s and a novel twist.

"When the first draft of the script came, we could only see Shahrukh Khan doing it," says Sidhwani, who has co-produced all of Akhtar's films. "We needed someone who had the charisma to ensure that the audience didn't repel from the fact that this guy kills people and keeps getting away with it."

Nearly two decades ago, Khan played the bad-guy role in a trio of Hindi films: Baazigar, in which his character kills one of the lead females; Darr, in which he plays a serial stalker; and Anjaam, which saw him play a sociopathic killer. But in the years since, Khan has played the saccharine, guitar-strumming protagonist in a slew of romantic films, wooing beauty queens and family audiences, and in the process becoming the highest-paid Hindi film actor to date.

"For someone who doesn't even like love stories, I've played an awful lot of lovers," Khan has said. "Personally speaking, I wouldn't see any of the romantic films I've acted in."

Which perhaps explains how eagerly he jumped at the opportunity to play Don, in his 58th and 75th film appearances.

"I did enjoy him as the bad guy," says Akhtar, as he heads to Dubai with his cast for the premiere of the film. "The capacity to play bad in a very, very interesting way takes an actor of Shahrukh's calibre, and he pulls it off with such panache.

"What I liked about Don was that we never justify his greed, the need for power. He doesn't claim to be anything but his bad self - the audience prefers that lack of hypocrisy. If we had turned the character good - given him a subplot to explain the way he is - then the film wouldn't have worked."

Akhtar grew up in Mumbai (Bombay as it was then) in the 80s, uniformly recognised as the worst decade for Hindi films; an excess of mindless musical mayhem that needed a transfusion of fresh blood.

"God, there were some awful movies made in the 80s, which gave birth to so many cliches," he says. "You really have to sift through to find the cinematic gems. But now, things have changed."

Nonetheless, he says, "I enjoyed Hindi films a lot growing up. I never looked down on them. And in equal measure, I was crazy about dramas and action films from Hollywood - the Bond movies and Die Hard. Especially Die Hard!

"Friends used to make fun of me, but I used to watch Bruce Willis' action - or parts of it - every day. Die Hard I, II, III and IV - I loved them all. Fast-paced action, non-stop movement and exposition, the lines - which, as a teen, I thought were brilliant. Now I flinch a bit. But I still love it and know every word."

And therein may lie the genesis of the slick and expensive action sequences in his own films. With an international crew and the latest technology, the sheen and patina of Don 2 is several notches above the average fare - and if the chase scenes seem reminiscent of The Bourne Identity it is for good reason.

"The Mumbai movie-watcher is different from those of anywhere else as we're fed on both Indian films and Hollywood flicks, so our generation of movie makers has that duality in them. We want to make films where the action is on par with an American counterpart, but we won't shy away from the song-and-dance routine," says Akhtar. "I have to say, I enjoy the music, too - as long as it pushes the story forward. The days of mindless, 'lets put a song here to give the audience time to go to the loo' are over. I hope."

Don 2 is less than two hours and 15 minutes long - shorter by three quarters of an hour than the average Hindi film - and most of the songs hum along in the background.

"We added a background score for Don, and there aren't many lip-synced dances that the leads break into. Depending on the nature of the film - its genre - the song-and-dance bit is often integral to Indian cinema, and it would be a disservice to take it out. The Frenchman in the hall or the German or the Malaysian or Indonesian, they expect it just as much as the Indian audience does.

"The rate of inflation aside, Don 2 is on a much larger scale [than the first Don]. We had established that Don was wanted all across Asia for the crimes he committed in the first film - so why not take over the world?" says Akhtar. "We had an excellent crew and cast [in Berlin] - and if you've heard the expression, 'India has the largest cinematic audience', well, we witnessed it. Everywhere we went, even in the winter, hundreds of people gathered to watch. Shahrukh celebrated his birthday during the shoot and hundreds of people congratulated him - he was very moved."

Don 2 was simultaneously released in India, the United States and Britain, where there is a large Indian community. Russia, France, Malaysia, South Korea, Germany, Hong Kong and the mainland also got to see the film last weekend, as the market for Indian films with subtitles or dubbed versions grows rapidly.

Says producer Sidhwani: "In India, we got lucky that Mission: Impossible [Ghost Protocol] was released a week before Don 2. But we're also lucky that an Indian audience is not divided by a Hollywood option. A nation of a billion, if given an option, would patronise their local industry."

And will there be a Don 3?

Akhtar laughs: "Ring me back after you watch the film. I'll answer then."


The stars of Don 2, Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra, will host the Zee Cine Awards at the Venetian Macao on January 21. Tickets are available at www.venetianmacao.com/zee_cine_awards. Don 2 had a limited run over Christmas and may return in the new year. In the meantime you can visit www.don2thefilm.com to conduct your own investigation into his crimes.


Feature by P.Ramakrishnan, ramakrishnanp @ hotmail.  com [spaced out so I don't get spam - and I mean more spam! Rama).

Out of Character: Bollywood Goes for a Novel Narrative

Most mainstream Bollywood films tend to stick to a formula, reinforcing, good, clean, family values as white sari-clad heroines and dashing young heroes fall in love among fields of sunflowers.

But when 27-year-old Siddharth Anand got approval from producer Aditya Chopra to turn his screenplay into a film, the debutant director chose to push the envelope. Well, just a bit. In Salaam Namaste, the lead couple (played by Preity zinta and Saif Ali Khan) don't get married - they simply live together.

Not long ago, such a thing in a Bollywood film would have been scandalous. But times are changing. "We have to push the audience little by little," says Anand. "A live-in relationship isn't a big deal in Indian cities any more.

"As new directors, we have to push the envelope - but slowly. The film isn't provocative or scandalous. It's a young couple who live together. We're not there to shock anyone just for the heck of it. In fact, no one will be shocked by it in India. It's the NRI [non-resident Indian} market - the Indians who left India 20, 30 years ago and are still maintaining old standards. They need to see how far India has progressed."

Anand's family has a long association with Bollywood - his grandfather Indra Raj Anand was a screen writer in the 70s and is credited with about 120 films - but he turned overseas for inspiration.

"It came from F.R.I.E.N.D.S," he says. "When Star started showing the sitcoms around India, it was incredibly influential. They had the issues that youth did. I think audiences will recognise Monica, Ross and Joey-ish characters."

Big things are expected from Salaam Naamaste! Hong Kong 's Bollywood fans can see it at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Sunday.

The film has come out under the banner of Yash Raj, India's oldest and most successful film production company, which has recorded profits of more than 300 million rupees ($53 million) in the past two years.

"I had co-written Hum Tum [Me and You] and the film was last year's biggest hit for the company," Anand says. "I wanted a young film, but the team of writers I had were just not getting the language right, so I wrote the story and screenplay. I guess script writing is in my genes."

The title uses Muslim and Hindu greetings - leading some people to think the film will be a caste - conflict romance. But Anand says there are none of those cliches.

"I'm glad the title of the film is going to mislead people because they're in for a complete surprise then," he says. "There aren't any fighting parents, no rich and poor tales and no culture clashes. This is a simple, musical romance and the only conflict is the inner conflict between a couple.

"The reason older filmmakers are struggling now is because they haven't adapted to the times - unlike Yash Chopra, who's in his 70s and still makes the biggest success because he's kept up with social and economical changes, and the attitudes and intelligence of the urban audience."

By P.Ramakrishnan

Screen Studies: Shahrukh Khan: Interview with a Bollywood Icon, South China Morning Post

In Indian cinema, there’s no one quite like Shahrukh Khan. Khan’s unprecedented hold on top of the box office remains a feat unmatched. With the advent of Rab Ne Bana De Jodi, will he strike box-office gold… again? P.Ramakrishnan was in conversation with a King. 

"I honestly don't know where I'd be if that film wasn't made," says Indian actor Shahrukh Khan, referring to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (which translates to The Brave Heart will Take the Bride). The 1995 film was Aditya Chopra's directorial debut and it defied the skeptics' predictions in Bollywood and eventually ran in Mumbai for almost 10 years, earning a record 700 million Indian rupees (HK$110.43 million) and 10 Filmfare awards (India's equivalent to the Oscars). It also propelled Khan to phenomenal stardom. 

He would eventually become the most well-known actor to have emerged from Bollywood in recent years. His popularity has since spread far beyond India through films such as Don and Om Shanti Om. He has a solid fan-base in Hong Kong, for example, where he's been dubbed the "Andy Lau of Bollywood!". 

With the same film production unit that produced Diwale [DDLJ], Khan hits cinemas again after a year-long absence from the big screen with Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (God Brought the Duo Together), in which he plays a simple country bumpkin from northern India who gets married to the most desirable girl in his village - much to the young woman's distress. It's a remarkably different role for an actor who is more well-known for playing hunks and there's no swanky cars or designer duds to be seen anywhere. 

It doesn't matter, as Khan says, it will be "one of the funniest films" he has ever done. The 43-year-old - now with more than 60 films under his belt since his movie debut in 1992 - is adamant that the all-singing, all-dancing slant of his commercial films has more value than gritty cinematic affairs. 

"You know when you see a so-called serious cinema offering and fall asleep in the theatre? And about 30 people saw it? I'm not mentioning names, but the director has then failed completely to make a compelling story. That's it. It's as simple as that," he says. 

Despite having won numerous awards, the Bollywood star says box office take is more important to him. "It's always fun and great to get awards but nothing beats box office success. If the audience hasn't been won over, then you've failed somewhere along the line," he says. "I think it's an easy excuse when directors or actors say the film could have been a big hit but it was released before its time and it would do well today. That's just bulls***. You didn't know what your current audience wanted, and made a film that didn't work." 

He adds, laughing, that his past four movies produced by him have not done so well at the box office. "I know what I'm talking about. I've cried when my films have failed." 

As for his upcoming movie, he's confident it will do well. "In a way, I'm undoing what Dilwale did. That movie created this urban, yuppie character Raj, the cool dude," he says. "This movie Rab Ne, is demystifying the character of Raj. You have to take my word for it, I'm shy, an introvert, who essays characters that are cool. I was never cool. I act cool but that's not me. I rarely socialise, I rarely party, I was never trendy. When wardrobe stylists send me clothes, I wear them. "When my character is supposed to be the popular jock, I walk the walk, but deep down, I've always been shy." 

So, as he portrays the bespectacled, white pajama-wearing, tech-nerd Surinder Sahni, is that the real him? "Yes... in many ways. It was so much easier to play that part and I had so much fun doing it," he says. "I tell everyone, don't be fooled by my image. When people ask me to go and hit a party, my reaction is, and then what? I'd rather be home with my wife and two kids. To me, a party is on the set. I was destined to play the role of Shahrukh Khan." 

Rab ne Bana Di Jodi screens in Chinachem, TST East.

Indian Opus: Devdas with Indian cine icons Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit and Shahrukh Khan is heading to Hong Kong

When the blades of a storm fan flew out of control and fatally wounded a film assistant in the face, little did director Sanjay Leela Bhansali know that the tragedy would be the first of many catastrophes to hit the production of his 500-million rupee (HK$81.5 million) opus, Devdas. 

The musical's producer, Bharat Shah, a former diamond merchant-turned-financier, was also arrested for his purported dealings with the Indian mafia (the case is still pending in Mumbai High Court). There were more accidents on the Mumbai set and the death of another member of the production's crew caused India's Movies Action Dummy Effects Association (MADEA) to investigate the most expensive set in Bollywood. 

Bhansali called in the priests and pundits and a "havan" (holy pyre) was lit to appease the gods in the creation of a film the local media had long said was jinxed. Fortunately, the association's representatives and local politicians were so impressed by the Devdas set's infrastructure that they asked the crew to let it stand as a cine-monument in India's film capital. 

Weeks later, production ground to a halt when the musical's crew and cast of hundreds were not paid in time. The producer had suffered a major heart attack during his 16-month stint in prison and Bhansali was forced to borrow money from friends to pay his over-worked staff. Members of the Shah family insisted Bhansali complete his "dream project" and, with the support of his A-list cast, the film was completed in 260 shifts, two-and-a-half years after the musical's first scenes were filmed. 

On May 23, 2002, Devdas' lead actors Shah Rukh Khan, the former Miss World Aishwarya Rai and Bhansali finally had their moment of respite at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered. There was a standing ovation for the three-hour-plus extravaganza and Time film critic Richard Corliss labelled it "the most visually ravishing movie ever," calling Bhansali "a young master of the medium". 

Devdas has a precarious future, however. It has been more than a decade since a tragedy struck Bollywood box-office gold in a country notoriously keen on feel-good romances and happy endings. 

Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's classic novel Devdas has inspired nearly a dozen Indian films, all of which have received the warm appreciation of the critics but only lukewarm responses from their audiences. First published in Bengali in 1917, Devdas' simple story is often regarded as the ultimate tragedy in Indian literature. 

The ingredients of the plot may seem all too familiar: there are poor girl-rich boy star-crossed lovers, a prostitute with a heart of gold, a love triangle and an unrequited love culminating in death and destruction. 

Childhood sweethearts Devdas (Shah) and Paro (Rai) wish to marry but the former's arrogant and affluent family disapprove of the match. Humiliated, Paro's mother curses Devdas' family. Devdas asks Paro to forget him as he can't go against his family's wishes but he later recognises the intensity of his love. On her wedding day to another man, Paro in turn spurns Devdas, who finds solace in alcohol and the dance of courtesan Chandramukhi (the extraordinary danseuse Madhuri Dixit). The courtesan falls for the perpetually inebriated lover who fails to reciprocate her affection and mourns instead for his lost love. While Devdas falls into an alcohol-sodden depression, Paro fails to find wedded bliss. Then the film's three main characters find salvation in their own tragic end. 

The director probably intended to highlight the tragedy of Devdas with a beautiful backdrop. Complementing the film's gorgeous cast, a coterie of the finest designers - Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla (who outfitted Dame Judi Dench and others at the Oscars) along with National award winner Neeta Lulla - created the 1930s look with richly brocaded, mirror and gold-embedded costumes for the leading ladies. 

Bhansali engaged four of India's leading dance directors for the film's eight songs but his coup was getting the maestro Kathak dancer Pandit Birju Maharaj to compose, sing and choreograph the central dance for the diva Chandramukhi. But while international critics enjoyed Devdas in Cannes, there are doubts about whether this musical melodrama will emulate India's Oscar-nominated Lagaan in finding an overseas audience. 

Defying modern trends, the lengthy romance is chaste; none of the leading characters kiss, let alone do anything else to stir the story's devastating drama. If Devdas' producers hope to make their money back on foreign returns, they face another battle with Hollywood's summer releases. 

Even in India, the year's biggest hits have been Raaz (an Indianised version of What Lies Beneath) and the Hindi-dubbed flick Spider-Man. And according to Taran Adarash of India's Trade Guide, 88 of the 101 Hindi films released so far in 2002 failed to cover their costs. 

Although Devdas is up against the odds, the musical has aroused unprecedented curiosity. Its songs have topped the Indian charts for the past month and the film's advance bookings have been staggering. Even with the best of Bollywood behind it, however, it remains to be seen whether Devdas, the costliest Indian film ever made, will be a historic hit... or a lamentable loss. 

Devdas. 

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and Hong Kong Arts Centre, July 14-18. 

Tickets $220, $180, $120, Ticketek. 

Inquiries, contact Morning Star: 2368 2947 Publication - Date: 11.07.2002 

Author: P Ramakrishman 

Publication: SCMP Column: Screen Studies

Screen Studies by P.Ramakrishnan