Amitabh Bachchan will be playing legendary tiger hunter and conservationist, Jim Corbett in Priyadarshan’s forthcoming movie, “Grrr”.

Priyan had this to say about casting Big B in the role of Jim Corbett:

he could envisage none other than Big B in the role of the fearless Jim Corbett

The film will be about the man-eating tigers of Sunderbans and is going to be a thriller.

Priyadarshan has so far directed the Big B only in commercials and this will be his first directing the Shahenshah in a movie.

Interesting to note here that Priyadarshan’s last outing, Billu (Barber), had the Badshah of Bollywood: Shahrukh Khan in it.

Well, if you people thought that there were no other websites to go to other than Indiafm or Rediff with regards to news about box office performance of movies, think again. Here’s a great website called the IBOS Network which tracks the box office collections of Bollywood movies and, in fact, has a huge archive of box office info on a lot of titles starting right from the 1940s and earlier.

As for the topic of this post is concerned, here’s a look at the Box office report for the year 2007 for Bollywood. According to the report, the top 5 earners of 2007 are:

1. Om Shanti Om (Shahrukh Khan delivers a solid hit)
   
2. Welcome (which got here because it was one week shy of the new year when it released and scored big in that one  week, grossing almost 75% of what Om Shanti Om did in it’s entire run. This is Akshay Kumar’s fourth hit film in a single calender year giving him considerable clout at the Box Office)
3. Partner (Salman and Govinda score points)
4. Guru (Abhishek’s career defining performance scored for him and his director Mani Ratnam a power packed blockbuster)
5. Chak De India (Shahrukh Khan did for hockey and what no one else could do, bring them to the headlines)

This is one of the biggest clash of two of the most awaited movies of 2007. Yes. It’s about Shahrukh and Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya (which is the first production of Sony Pictures India).

2007 has not been a good year for Bollywood so far only a handful of movies making it past the HIT mark. I wonder if it would be wise (or good economics) to field two of the most eagerly anticipated movies of 2007?

Maybe I’m wrong. But what if I ain’t? What if all of this is going to hurt all the parties involved rather than do any good for them. For me, as a  cinema-goer, I don’t mind both of them coming at the same time since I would be watching both the movies.

What is your take?

Raj Kumar Hirani, the man behind Munnabhai movies, plans to make a movie with Shahrukh Khan based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel about life in the IIT. Hirani plans to finish this movie before he can begin work on Munnabhai Chale Amrika.

It must be noted that Shahrukh was the original choice to play Munnabhai before Hirani banked upon Sanjay Dutt and the rest as they is history!

Good luck to you Mr. Hirani and you too Shahrukh. All I can say is: Lage Raho!

I was just watching news on NDTV, when they showed an advanced preview of Karan Johar’s show, Koffee with Karan. In the forthcoming episode which airs this Sunday, Shahrukh Khan and Farah Khan are the guests.

In the episode, Karan asks Shahrukh Khan about him being all slim and sexy and muscular of late. He wants to know what is the secret of this new transformation. In reply to this, Shahrukh tells him an incident which his son Aryan faced at school when a girl taunted about Shahrukh to him. He goes on to say that Aryan reacted to only the comment where she said that his father is fat.

Later that evening, Aryan came home and said to Shahrukh, “Papa, I don’t care what she (the girl) said about you. But it was not her mistake that she said you are fat. It’s because you ARE fat”.

This let Shahrukh get slim and muscular and change his look lately.

So now you know why the King Khan is looking all the more dashing, young and sexy lately.

It is indeed great what Shahrukh Khan has achieved for our country all over the world. It is indeed good to hear when people say he is the pride of India. So, it is only true and deserving that somebody writes a good article about the King Khan.

So, we have Shobhaa De writing in her column at Times Of India about SRK. Writing in the article she has this to say, India’s Hope: SRK:

Shah Rukh Khan is the Neo-Mussalman India has been waiting for. He wears his religion unabashedly on his sleeve and has referred to himself as ‘an ambassador for Allah’ in a recent interview. It is significant that he has switched from being a Raj, Rahul or Jai in his films and now prefers to be known as Kabir Khan (Chak De! India).

Read the full article, India’s Hope: SRK

As reported by me before, Chak De India has picked up business but it remains restricted to the multiplexes. The film ain’t making any progress as far as single screens are concerned.

So, this one’s not a bomb atleast. It is a good movie and I hope it becomes a multiplex hit at the least. Not for Yash Raj Films. Hell, no! It should be a hit for the sake of Shahrukh Khan, for the sake of Shimit Amin and most importantly for Hockey.

One must commend Shahrukh for taking such a big risk and doing a movie on Hockey with no leading lady opposite him.

Plagiarism has reached it’s peak with this, I must say. After I reported previously about Chak De India, now it seems another big movie releasing this Friday is also inspired.

Yep, I’m talking about the Sajid Khan directed and Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan and Riteish Deshmukh starrer Heyy Babyy.

Well, Shahrukh Khan has done it. He has done what was expected of him. He has revived general interest in the ailing Indian National Sport of Hockey. It moves our interest towards the national sport away from the heavily monetized sport of Cricket (albeit temporarily ).

Well, the movie may not be very good with it’s script but it has Shahrukh Khan in it and the direction is good. The movie is the story of the underdogs (The Indian Women’s Hockey Team) achieving what was never expected from them.

It is a movie about team spirit. It is a movie about working for a cause together. Like I said in my previously written Box Office report, I wish SRK all the best. I just hope this movie makes a great return.

Best of Luck, SRK. Best of Luck, our National Sport: Hockey.

** The Related pages table below is being disabled as I have activated a plugin that puts a list of related links at the bottom of each post hereby giving you a better list. To see a list of related pages, go to the bottom of this article.

Related pages from All Pumped Up!:

• Chak De India takes a slow start at the Indian Box Office
• Some behind the scene facts about the SRK starrer, Chak De India
• Oh yea, more about Chak De India and Shah Rukh Khan
• Update on SRK’s new movie, Chak De India: It seems it is ‘inspired’ by “Miracle”

External related links of interests:

• Chak De India: A Photo Feature – Hindustan Times
• Chak De India’s UK Premiere in photos: Hindustan Times
• Chak De India: Movie Review

 

Even as Yash Raj Films previous two releases, Ta Ra Rum Pum and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom tanked at the box office, they get ready to release their new release Chak De India starring Bollywood Superstar, Shah Rukh Khan.

It is an interesting movie (although it is based on the Kurt Russell starrer, Miracle) and I found this article that tells us about some behind the scene facts of the movie:

SRK started training for his role for the coach with India Women’s Hockey Coach. He read and learnt about hockey and understood the commands of the whistles in order to get into the character.
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The opening scene of the film required SRK to fall during a speedy hockey sequence. Seeing how crucial the scene was SRK decided to do the stunt himself. Being shot on a Hockey stadium it gave no scope for any harnesses or any mat, however SRK still insisted on doing the shot himself. Due to the multiple camera coverage and continuity he had to perform the stunt 8 times which he did with exact continuity and the shot remains in the film.

Read the full article to check out some more interesting facts about Chak De! India.