Bollywood Masala Mix
Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre, popularly referred to as V. Shantaram, was an Indian filmmaker, film producer and actor. He is most known for his films like Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946), Amar Bhoopali (1951), Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957), Navrang (1959), Duniya Na Mane (1937), Pinjra (1972), Chani, Iye Marathiche Nagari and Zunj.
He directed his first film, Netaji Palkar, in 1927. In 1929, he founded the Prabhat Film Company along with Vishnupant Damle, K.R. Dhaiber, S. Fatelal and S.B. Kulkarni, which made Ayodhyecha Raja, the first Marathi language film in 1932 under his direction. He left Prabhat in 1942 to form "Rajkamal Kalamandir" in Mumbai. In time, "Rajkamal" became one of the most sophisticated studios of the country.
He was praised by Charlie Chaplin for his Marathi film Manoos. Chaplin reportedly liked the film very much.
Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre was born on 18th November 1901 in the erstwhile princely state of Kolhapur (in present-day Maharashtra) into a Maharashtrian family.
He started his film career doing odd jobs in Maharashtra Film Co. owned by Baburao Painter at Kolhapur. He went on to debut as an actor in the silent film, Surekha Haran in 1921.
Shantaram, fondly known as Annasaheb, had an illustrious career as a filmmaker for almost six decades. He was one of the early filmmakers to realize the efficacy of the film medium as an instrument of social change and used it successfully to advocate humanism on one hand and expose bigotry and injustice on the other. V. Shantaram had a very keen interest in music. It is said that he "ghost wrote" music for many of his music directors, and took a very active part in the creation of music. Some of his songs had to be rehearsed several times before which they were approved by V. Shantaram.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was conferred on him in 1985. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1992.
His autobiography Shantarama was published in Hindi and Marathi.
Shantaram died on 30 October 1990 in Mumbai. The V. Shantaram Award was constituted by India's Central Government and the Maharashtra State Government. The V. Shantaram Motion Picture Scientific Research and Cultural Foundation, established in 1993, offers various awards to film makers. The award is presented annually on 18 November. A postage stamp, bearing his face, was released by India Post to honour him on 17 November 2001.
Shantaram was married thrice. His first marriage was to Vimla, with whom he has three children, son Prabhat Kumar, daughters Saroj and Charusheela, mother of actor Sushant Ray a.k.a. Siddharth Ray.
Shantaram then married actress Jayashree (née Kamulkar), with whom he had three children – Marathi film producer Kiran, actress Rajshree and Tejashree.
His third wife, actress Sandhya (née Vijaya Deshmukh), was his co-star in Do Aankhen Barah Haath as well as the heroine of his films like Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Navrang, Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli, and Sehra. Their daughter, Madhura is married to Pandit Jasraj, the mother of Shaarangdev Pandit and Durga Jasraj.
He introduced Rajshree and Jeetendra in the 1964 film Geet Gaya Patharon Ne. He also introduced his niece Ranjana Deshmukh into the Marathi film industry through Chandanachi Choli Ang Ang Jaali, directed by Kiran Shantaram in 1975. Ranjana dominated the Marathi silver screen in the 70s and 80s. Shantaram used to live at Panhala. His daughter, Saroj has maintained his house and converted it into a hotel, Valley View.
By Priyadarshini Patwa
The box office is certainly blowing up internationally and the credit for the same goes to franchise films that are being released back to back. The summer box-office sales which were going slow got the much-deserved kick due to Disney movies. But ruling the global market is one thing, however, leaving a mark in the Indian market where diversity makes things difficult to cater and satisfy everyone’s appetite is another. The studios seem to be changing the way they perceive the Indian box office. In fact, one can very well claim that India has become one of the most potential film markets and production houses are working on different innovative strategies to win the audiences there.
The Avengers Sequel - Global and Indian Market
We don’t need to tell you that the amount of money “Avengers: Endgame” has made. The popular sequel has already got $2.743 billion globally. One of the most anticipated films of the year, Avengers: Endgame released across 2,500 cinema halls in India alone, making it one of the biggest releases in the country. And this happened because of the immense response Avengers: Infinity War received, which surprised Hollywood.
As per a report by BookMyShow, over 2.5 million tickets of the film were sold, 18 tickets per second. This became the highest advance ticket sale of any Hollywood film on the platform in India to date. The movie also got special permissions to have post-midnight shows. Strategising the fandom of the fan, Cinepolis that time even hosted a 20-hour movie marathon across cities in India before the final installment hit the screen.
Avengers: Infinity War was India’s highest Hollywood grosser making INR 200 crore just within 14-days of its release.
Avenger Re-release to Dethrone Avatar
In fact, there are even speculations to re-release the film which will include the deleted scenes. It is being said that this is a strategy to boost the sale and break ‘Avatar’s’ all-time record.
Talking about movies, only five films have ever surpassed $2 billion in the worldwide box office and Disney has four films under their rights now.
The Success and Failure of Franchise Films
Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ which was recently released picked up $300 million in North American ticket sales and INR 47.21 crores (as per the two-weekend collection).
However, this isn’t the end-game for them on box office. Disney is dominating its rivals and the next few weeks seem to be a cakewalk for them in terms of ruling the charts. The return of ‘Toy Story 4’ has already garnered $118 million opening weekend. According to the studio, ‘Toy Story 4’ is the fourth highest animated film opening over (not accounting for inflation).
Like ‘Toy Story’ other movie sequels like "Dark Phoenix," "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and "Men in Black: International hit the screen, but they failed to impress the viewers. What actually worked in favour of "Toy Story 4" were wonderful reviews. It is rated 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and has been doing pretty well even now. But according to the numbers despite reviews, it has not minted the amount of money that was expected, which become a hiccup in the franchise.
Will the Lion Roar in India?
Another anticipated movie of the year by Disney is "The Lion King," which premieres on July 19. Before its release, the movie has already made records. Fandango and Atom (the ticket selling platforms) on Tuesday last week announced that the Jon Favreau-directed remake of original 1994 film has outpaced, in the first 24 hours making a new record. If sales go as per this speed, this will soon be the second-best pre-ticket sale on Fandango after Avengers: Endgame.
Though the movie has its own craze globally, to target the Indian market the studio has gone extra miles and cast powerhouse actors to give their voice in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Innovation is the key to reach the mass and filmmakers understand it like no one else.
Decoded the Formula To Win Indian Market?
As Hollywood has discovered India as the next big market, the studio has roped Shah Rukh Khan for the Hindi version of Lion King and will be voicing Mufasa (James Earl Jones in English) and his son Aryan Khan will voice Simba. The real-life father-son duo will be seen creating the magic on screen as well. Adding to the list is also Ashish Vidyarthi as Scar, Shreyas Talpade as Timon, Sanjay Mishra as Pumbaa and Asrani as Zazu.
Deadpool 2 with Indian Voices – A Failure!
In the past, when Deadpool 2 was released in India, Ranveer Singh gave his voice to the merc with a mouth. And popular YouTube influencer Bhuvan Bham as Dopinder. The combination might sound amazing, but Hindi dubbed film, unfortunately, failed to strike a chord with the viewers. This proves not every experiment is successful.
The Plan Ahead:
Meanwhile, the fourth week of July has some fabulous movies by Sony which has been produced by Disney’s Marvel Studio, "Spider-Man: Far From Home.” The fall will also see “Star Wars” and “Frozen 2”, so it is difficult to see Disney being dethroned this 2019 from the box office.
However, this should raise concern for the rival studios as they seem to be nowhere on par with Disney that is literally on a roll to take over the box-office. Will Warner Bros, Paramount, DC, and others up their game and venture into the Indian market as well with a new approach? Well, that is something that would be interesting to see how other Hollywood studios plan to make their space in such a diverse country.
We regret this error and offer our sincere apologies to all affected by this inadvertence.