A new Bollywood film on a shrewd businesswoman’s plan to build a power plant caught up in development politics is drawing comparisons with the controversy behind the failed Indian project of U.S. utilities giant Enron.
“Sarkar Raj,” starring Bollywood’s first family the Bachchans, has an uncanny resemblance to the real-life drama involving powerful politician Balasaheb Thackeray, whose party opposed a $2.8 billion power plant built by Enron in the 1990s.
The controversy surrounding the private power plant, India’s largest then, highlighted the politics of development and the difficulties of doing business in a country replete with corruption, political intimidation and red tape.
Bachchan, his son Abhishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya started walking in the very early hours of Tuesday from their residence ‘Jalsa’ at around 2:00 am.
The street leading to the temple witnessed serpentine queues of fans who wanted to have a glimpse of their favourite stars.
Amitabh’s wife Jaya Bachchan joined them at the temple.
According to reports, the actor along with the team of ‘Sarkar Raj’ went to seek the blessings of the deity for the success of the film.
With India’s entertainment billionaires seemingly blessed with limitless pockets, Bollywood is flexing its movie muscle, taking on Hollywood in unexpected corners of the globe and buying up theatres worldwide.
“Bollywood now has the muscle and (Indian) corporates have big money,” prominent Indian filmmaker Jagmohan Mundra told AFP.
Mundra said Bollywood companies began the bid to buy into Hollywood cinemas and distribution networks after Indian films failed to get a wide showing in the West.
The slew of major entertainment deals announced this week at Cannes, the world’s biggest film market, underlined Indian cinema expansionism.
Reliance BIG Entertainment, for example, the entertainment branch of India’s mighty Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group, unveiled plans to spend one billion US dollars by the end of 2009.
ADA plans to use the cash to produce a slate of films in nine languages while ensuring the movies make it onto cinema screens outside India as well as on home video, online digital platforms, and television through the Internet (IPTV).
Watch Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan who joined their daughter- in- law Aishwarya during the premier of ‘Vickey Cristina Barcelona’ at 61st International Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France.
It’s no longer about cold wars. The starry world of Bollywood is busy with caustic combats instead. So Aamir Khan writes a cheeky blog entry describing his smelly dog named Shahrukh while Amitabh Bachchan rates Shah Rukh Khan’s new reality show as “Panchvi Fail”. Bachchan goes on to compare Panchvi Pass’s ratings with his own high-ranking KBC show. Salman Khan is brattish as usual, checking on Akshay Kumar’s fee before naming his price.
The gloves are off in Bollywood. While yesteryear stars Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor and other antagonists kept their mutual dislike private, today the bitching is out in the open. The change has perhaps to do with Bollywood’s changing dynamics. Bachchan has reportedly been paid over Rs 100 crore for his blog, so dishing out controversy is part of the domain, quips an industry watcher. Aamir probably felt that Bachchan was stealing the limelight, so he posted a mischievous comment. Two months ago, Aamir had demoted SRK, calling him the Number 2 star of the industry.
“Suddenly it’s no longer a politically correct, diplomatic Bollywood,” says a media observer. “Bachchan, who over the years has been the epitome of modesty and political correctness, has thrown caution to the winds, especially in his blog. The others seem to be following suit. One doesn’t know whether this is for the better or worse.”
Salman Khan, not given to something as literary as a blog, makes his views clear in more prosaic ways. He has been openly attacking actors like John Abraham and Vivek Oberoi and refuses to acknowledge their presence at public events. Khan’s latest bete noire is Akshay Kumar, not because his girlfriend Katrina is more comfortable with Akshay than him but because Akshay charges more. Says an insider, “A corporate approached Salman with a project and quoted Akshay’s price to him. The actor told the reps that he would charge at least Rs 5 crore more than that.”
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