For the fans of Mr India here is some terrific news. Mogambo’s search for the formula for invisibility s finally a scientific fact. A research team at the Nanotechnology centre of Purdue University, has created a design that could render people or objects invisible by placing an optical `cloak’ around them. Read on at :
http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/29/stories/2007042900141200.htm
Ha ha ha…MOGAMBO khush hua..
Cool…but the link to the Uni’s site which includes videos seems to be just that…invisible !!!
Dear Shekhar,
I remember seeing Mr. India vividly on the big screen when I was a student in Delhi Public School. The whole class saw it together in a very beautiful setting in the campus of the public sector company we lived in. I loved the character Calendar (Satish Kaushik) and the song in which they ask for the football. Mogambo and Gabbar are probably the only two characters in Hindi cinema that have passed the test of time and are instantly identifiable today. I also remember seeing an interview on Doordarshan where you said that you decided only use the best technology available in India (and no foreign special effects) at that point, and it looked totally real.
The above invisible cloak if developed for all color frequencies will be one of the greatest inventions ever. To be able to develop metamaterials with a refractive index of less than 1 and see through them by bending light – that is just amazing. I was always one of the best physics students in my school (a book by Resnick and Halliday used to be my bible) and I’m totally intrigued about this finding.
Regards,
Himanshu – NY
this is something…!!!
i will read the articles again…just went through them quickly…its something about bending of light rays and then the object becomes invisible…
but i didnt see the word OPAQUE!… if that can happen…i will go to Sweden, rob a bank and will buy it…(Sweden because its over developed…government will return the money of the bank holders…hehehe)
Imagine…!!! invisibility…!!! Mogambo inside me wants that CLOAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…Arun inside me is shouting No No No…Shhh…there is a reserved place for you in the corner…go and sit there and be quiet…its about INVISIBILITY!!!
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha …
dear mr. kapur,
i went around searching fr ur email address but didnt find one… but i am sure u must be visiting ur website too often to escape atention.
I went through your latest creations- devi, the snake woman and the sadhu, and i must tell you the innovation and the creativity in those comics completely mesmerised me to say the least. i knew abt those comics being released, but it was during one of those long walks around Connaught Place in New Delhi that I first noticed them. It didnt take long for me to purchase the booty, and I finished them off the same evening. Being a poet myself, i decided upon painting a new image for the all- powerful Devi in my own way, and i came up with a realistic, albeit long, poem about the divine princess. i thought about sharing it with you, but didn’t find any mailing address for u… so i’ll be pasting the link here….
http://jayantchakravarti.blogspot.com/2007/04/devi.html
i hope you’ll find time off your schedule to go through my work. i’ll be waiting for your comments.
regards
jayant
Shekhar,
Your film Mr. India is my all time favourite film. As a kid I was mesmerized by it. All the scenes in which Mr. India appears are extremely exciting. As funny are the comedy scenes, be it Charlie Chaplin, Bajrangbali, Hawa Hawaai, Cockroach, Manglu or the editor scene. The emotional scenes are equally moving. I could never face the scene where Tina dies or the scene between Seema and the hungry kids.
I still feel like a kid when I watch the movie.
Thank you so much for Mr. India.
Not Opaque… lol… TRANSPARENT… sorry!
Opaque is what they have achieved… i think…
thank u Jayant, will look at it, shekhar
But Kedar, if the light rays ‘bend’ around the object, u would not see the opaqueness. It will be an ‘optical illusion’. shekhar
hahaha…thats what is it… relativity!!!…
i am totally confused with this article…i will take out proper time in a day or two and will go through the article once again…
Bending of light rays is bending the reality( reality not Truth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…plz any one dont get religion here…this is about a completely scientific experiment)… hehehe…an illusion… you are right…
please we need some scientist here…!!!
opaque we already are… they claim to make us dark and not invisible, i guess… means the space which our body occupies that whole place will become dark…no one will be able to see our features but that doesnt mean that other would be able to see what is behind us, through us… or they are claiming that we can be total transparent? …
some one please explain the experiment in a lay man’s terms…!!!….i visited the sight and those figures make me recall my engineering days and my nightmares started again…exam hall, Applied mechanics paper and i dont know a shit about it… Mogambo ro raha hai… 🙁
Hi Kedar,
Here is the simple explanation.
Imagine standing on a cricket pitch on a bright day looking directly at the wickets, and imagine a vertical bat placed in front of the wickets where the batsman stands. Under normal circumstances, you will see the bat and the wickets behind it. We have to look at the image formation in terms of rays. A ray of light from the sun hits the bat and gets reflected. When this reflected ray reaches your eye, you see the bat and similarly the wickets.
Now we paint the bat with this magical green paint (the cloak). The ray from the sun hits the bat, but does not get reflected towards your eye. It actually bends around the edges of the bat and goes and hits the wickets behind it, which reflect it. On the way back it hits the bat on the back side and again does not get reflected back towards the wickets. It goes around the edges of the bat again and reaches your eye. Every ray that hits the bat will bend around its edges, reach the wickets, and come back to you in the same way. This will make the bat invisible, as your eyes are only seeing the rays reflected back from the wickets.
Take Care,
Himanshu – NY
How about a device which achieves the same thing but works by tricking the mind into “forgetting” something is there, and then “pasting” what is behind, over it…??
I say this because how many times have you gone looking for something and then realized it is right in front of you ?…computers can reconstruct “missing” data by analyzing an image and generating what is behind something – not rocket science…
awesome Himanshu… thank you very much…
i am buying that CLOAK….hahahaha…
Wow that’s great news 😀
A page from History of Punjab:
Hi Shekhar, it’s Syed once again (PhD student in Australia) I want to share a page from history of Punjab. A few days ago I read an article(Click on this link to read the article or copy paste that in your browser: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060212/spectrum/main3.htm) about Princess Bamba Jindan the grand daughter of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh (The Lion of Punjab) and Rani Jindan. She was born in UK during her father Delip singh’s forced exile by British raj. She came to Punjab on the road to discover her heritage and fell in love with Lahore and decided to stay there lived there till her death in 1957.It is said Princess Bamba Jindan wanted to fulfil the last wish of her grandmother Maharani Jindan. So she carried the ashes of Maharani Jindan to Lahore from London and decided to live the rest of her life in the old city which served as the capital of her grandfathers vast kingdom. She brought the collection of art with her and other documents (in Lahore mueseum now) married connel Southerland the principle of King Edward madical college. I believe a good director can make a movie about Maharaja Ranjeet Sigh a saint to Sikh community and his Son Delip Singh a very interesting character in history of Punjab. The plot of the movie could be Princess Bamba’s Road to Discovery of her heritage and it could look like kind of flash back as she reads the history during her stay in Lahore. Following are the links to Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and his Son Dalip singh and Rani Jindan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharaja_Ranjit_Singh_%28Punjab%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharaja_Duleep_Singh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jind_Kaur
Waiting for your comments:
Syed.
Please do read Articles about Bamba, Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, Daleep Singh and Rani Jindan they are really interesting
Syed.
How do we know such a device is not ALREADY in use…? …people / things are moving around unseen by the general public…
Anyway, back to my post re a spin on the nanotech news item – the problem I noticed with my idea is that it would only work subjectively, ie things would only seem invisible to the wearer of the device, not to everyone, which is what the nanotech thing is about – so the wearer might just come across as severely short sighted to an observer…:)
On the other hand some kind of mass hypnosis might induce a similar state or maybe even nanotechnology which is released into the atmosphere and which then affects large numbers of people in the way my “device” would..net result: a lot of short-sighted people….
Beleive me…we are atleast 50 years away, even if its possible….Dont forget time travel…Even science enjoys fantasies.
Aditarya
Everything begins from the art of fantasies only. If we don’t imagine a thing how it will be created or found. Art and science have a great relationship. Remember Leonardo da Vinci’s imagination of the flying machine in 1400 which he painted. An artist imagines and science invents. Inventions are not possible without an artistic imagination. It’s like a relationship between a writer, director and technicians.
In short, imaginable things are possible because even our imagination has a base and logic. BUT imagination can be destructive or constructive.
sanjay
Yes sanjay that is what I meant….imagination is for art not science. As far as invisibility is concerned it has a scientifically perfect theory. But what about time travel. Why are the scientists so deeply divided over its possibility even in theory. Ambiguity is beautiful for arts not science. Is it not strange that most top scientists of the world are the most ardent believers of God.
luvs,
Adi
Hi Shekhar,
I hope my negativity didnt stop this interesting discussion.
Yesterday Dr. Kalam suggested a debate on whether India shd have two party system. Of course, our esteemed politicians shrugged it off but how about that as the topic of a new blog.
hi shekhar. thinking of you, hope you’re doing well.
polly
Dude…
few days ago i saw news on some channel about Virgin Comics… some cricket comic… tendulkar comic…and some inter galactic match and stuff…
may be this would be a great commercial success…but does it really sound INTERESTING?… NO WAY…
there is no novelty in the concept it self…!!!…
i mean it can be only one time comic…there cant be a series in that…wont it be logical to create fantastic characters like Tin Tin or Astrix and Obelix and then putting them into different situations…?
take care…tata…kedar…
Dear Shekhar,
Please allow me the space on your blog to comment on a Bollywood movie called Shootout at something something which stars the whole Hindi film industry.
The hype about this movie would lead us to believe that its a movie about a real life character and events surrounding his gunning down in an epic battle with the cops. Sounds great but here are some shocking facts about the producer and director duo.
Every movie made by the both of them so far, has either been a direct copy of foreign films or a majority of key action or dramatic scenes have been lifted from them. The shameless fact is they can go on talking about their great cinematic achievements without a single referance to the original source.
It humours me to think all the foreign dvds they went through before coming out with their latest extravaganza. Hei don’t this guys know that its a criminal act to copy someone else’s idea to pass it of as your own. Even if there are no copyright laws in India, how does one’s conscience allow such blatant cheating. Worse still how do top level actors agree to this idea pinching.
They say Bollywood is ready for the world but i wonder if Hollywood and Hong Kong are ready to see their work being ripped of in Hindi movies time and again. As one of the originals woudn’t you agree Shekar?
D Gopinath
Malaysia
Dear Gopinath,
Your honest comment has prompted me to write this. Let me explain to you how Bollywood (Bombay Film Industry) works. You questioned that how do the top actors here agree to work in such blatantly copied films. In fact, most of the time these top actors themselves ask the directors/writers (who are usually a part of their coterie) to write films based on some Hollywood or other foreign DVD(s) they liked. Ideas are lifted not only from foreign films but also from their Southern counterparts (the Tamil, Telegu & Malayalam film industry). Even they are more original & professional than the Bollywood film-makers.
There are camps in the industry. The Bachchan camp, the SRK Camp, the Yashraj Camp, the Bhatt camp and the like. I could reveal the names of the individual members of each camp also but somebody might take offence. The camps comprise of directors, producers, choreographers, dress-designers/stylists, writers and most of them are family or friends of the Kingpin of the Camp. These are the handful of people who make all the big money, when everyone knows that it takes hundreds of people (sometimes thousands) to make a quality film. So, while these handful of people make all the money, the rest of people down the line are all underpaid or never paid at all!
So why do the Bombay film-makers blatantly steal other people’s creative work? It is not just because of the lax copyright laws and the almost defunct judicial system of this country. It has more to do with the economics of film-making and the payment structures here. While a producer would happily pay as much as 5-7 crores to a top actor for working in a film, he would crib in paying even 5-7 lakhs to the story/script-writer. Only the name sells, not the quality. Big names in almost every department of film-making like Story Writing, Song Writing, Music Composition etc. buy/steal creative works of struggling people who are not in a position to negotiate, by paying peanuts and they then sell their (strugglers) work as their own. This has killed originality. When a writer knows that he/she is going to be paid peanuts for writing a story and most of the time would never even get the credit for writing it, then why would he/she waste his/her time in writing something original…….he/she’d much rather see some foreign DVD and translate that into a Hindi script.
The problem lies in the fact that all the power lies concentrated in nearly a 100 top people in the industry who are making all the money. The rest are not paid fairly for their work. The currently powerful players don’t want to let in talented newcomers, unless it suits them. So why would people be concerned about originality & quality if they don’t get any reward for quality.
This is my personal view of the current situation in Bollywood. Shekhar can correct me if I’m wrong.
Cheers!
Navin
Well said D Gopinath,
It is one of the major reasons our films dont get any respect in the rest of the world. Remember the movie called “Black”, that was a similar case too. We have very few people who create cinema…and most of the so called makers we have they just make the copies. (Like any other chinese product).
I personally worked in the bollywood industry as an assistant director to a very major director. That guy used to have the dvd of thr original movie on the sets and used to show it to even the cinematographer and actors before executing the scenes. That was what made me leave that so called creative filmdom.
Sanjay, NY
Sanjay N Navin
Glad that both of you agree. The ironic twist to the whole matter is that Bollywood is under the pretext that they are being hailed worldwide. It is a false notion as surely the big Hollywood studios are not going to take to kindly in watching their work ripped of for free.
Truth of the matter is no one really takes Bollywood seriously. Beyond the pretty faces that engage in song n dance Hindi movies do not offer any kind of threat – definately not to Hollywood but even countries like Hong KOng and Korea. Yes The pretty faces of Bollywood might walk the ramp at Cannes and make the headlines but are there any takers for the movies they appear in.
I think by describing the Hindi film scene in Malaysia would put the whole subject in perspective. The biggest fans of Bollywood here in Malaysia are the local Malays who by the way do not understand Hindi. They do not like a Rang De Basanti or Zor because it is to serious and they also do not like Krish because they get to watch the originals. They love watching Shahrukh Khan singing songs looking in his splendoured best. The slot has already been created for Bollywood – song and dance, popcorn stuff, keep the serious stuff for Hollywood. It is clear how Bollywood has created a rut for itself and by not changing their attitude they are only welcoming the stamp of mediocrity from lovers of good cinema the world over.
How can somebody copy art? Various Hollywood movies are based on borrowed stories and novels. so what? Even Bandit Queen was based on a novel. Did that make it less arty? Various remakes of hugely successful movies have failed miserably. Art simply cannot be copied. But if somebody is lifting an idea or a scene or a movie without due credits that is a matter of personal conscience and not laws. Personally I believe there cannot be and shouldn’t be any copyright on Ideas or imagination. By that I dont mean u copy the entire script and dont even compensate the writer.
Everybody in India now understand that it is the script and the movie as a whole that sells and not the stars. Writers aren’t paid very well but thats bcos there are no good writers that can command money. Money is not a problem in bollywood. It is the producers and the directors who are searching for good scripts. The problem I think is that good scripts sometimes get into the hands of bad directors and then it is portrayed that the novel story wasnt received properly by the audience. I feel there is a problem in the connect between the audience and the film makers. But that is why the producers are there in the first place. Every movie can be both successful and arty if u know ur target audience. RGV films are kinda expert in that. Black is hugely overrated though. How much ever the director may shout but I think it is his worst movie till now. He couldn’t decide on his target audience. With that story the movie should never have been that loud. It needed a much more subtle treatment. Bhansali is one of my favourite directors though and his ‘Khamoshi’ was a much better interpretation of a similar subject. Also I think, it would be very bad for art if money decided the quality. I am not an artist in any sense but if u ask any real artist he will tell u that remuneration is last in his/her mind while performing or writing or directing.
I have heard this “bollywood and hollywood” comparisons a lot of times. One thing i m sure of is that if America understood our language there wouldnt be any hollywood. Hollywood has a huge advantage with English so comparisons are a little unfair. About the south indian films being more professional I have no idea about their style of working but as far as the output quality is concerned they have a long way to go to even reach a respectable stage. I know south has produced some impeccable talents like Mani Ratnam and lot others and also they comeup with 1 or 2 brilliants every now and then but that doesnt cover up the mainstay south movies. Even hindi cinema was in a similar stage sometime back so thats not of any concern though.
Aditarya,
You are right borrowing a story or stealing a scene is nothing, BUT you have to understand that cinema is not about scene or a story…Its about how effectively you tell it and what interpretation you come out with. There is more than 10 films been made on bandit queen so far but the way Shekhar handled that subject and executed that matters…It was artistic and creative sense what put that film on the international scene. While Rest of the bandit queens just got disappeared in local talkies, now thats the difference between creativity and destructiveness. And remember stories remain the same. But “How you tell it that is the cinema. Can you imagine the making of Bandit queen” by Feroze khan. As he made Nayakan as Dayawan. Ha ha
regards
Sanjay
Dear Aditarya,
Your thoughts are muddled.
Quoting you: “But if somebody is lifting an idea or a scene or a movie without due credits that is a matter of personal conscience and not laws.”
How many people in this world live by their conscience? This is not an ideal world so laws are required to make sure that due credit and payment is made to the original creator of any art work.
Quoting you: “Everybody in India now understand that it is the script and the movie as a whole that sells and not the stars.”
I don’t think that’s true. Even today film projects take off when a top star says yes to a producer/director and then he/she chooses from script options which are written keeping in mind the star in question. The only good thing that’s happened is that a small new market has emerged for script based starless films also due to the advent of multiplexes in tier-I cities. The situation is likely to improve as the penetration of multiplexes gets deeper into the interiors of the country.
Quoting you:”Every movie can be both successful and arty if u know ur target audience. RGV films are kinda expert in that.”
I disagree. If you compare the initial films of RGV’s career with the ones in the recent past, I would say that the quality of his films has fallen drastically.
Quoting you: “Writers aren’t paid very well but thats bcos there are no good writers that can command money.”
So what came first, the chicken or the egg? There are plenty of good writers but they don’t write because they have no incentive to write original and quality stuff.
Quoting you: “It is the producers and the directors who are searching for good scripts.”
Yes, they are always searching for good scripts which they can steal or buy at a throwaway price.
Quoting you: “I am not an artist in any sense but if u ask any real artist he will tell u that remuneration is last in his/her mind while performing or writing or directing.”
Absolute crap. When you admit that you are not an artist in any sense then how do you know what a “real artist” will say? LOL. How can you be so presumptuous. Go find out how much an Amitabh Bachchan or an Aamir Khan, or an SRK or a Sanjay Leela Bhansali charges for a film. I’m sure everyone will agree that all of them are “real artists”. Or are they not??
Cheers!
Navin
Sanjay that is what I meant when I said art cannot be copied. Each artist has an interpretation and that interpretation is the art and interpretations can be imitated but not copied. If u read my first para u will notice that u have only rephrased my comments so I am assuming u agree with me. I am actually asking u this… bcos u r a director urself.
Navin all the points u have raised have the answers in my comments, if u take the pain of reading them without omitting words. But since u feel one of my comments is a crap, I will try to explain that. I didnt say artists shouldn’t or donot command money. I said it is last in their mind WHILE PERFORMING …or in other words the quality of art doesn’t depend on monetary compensation they should/would receive. There are also artists like Naseeruddin Shah, Umrish puri (late), Shyam Benegal, Pankaj Kapur, Salim-Javed , etc, etc, etc…..who are/were paid maybe 1/10th of the other names u took. Which group’s are a better artist is for u to choose. About the chicken and the egg argument…all the names u took first proved their worth and then commanded money. They werent paid well in their first movie itself. If there is any writer who doesn’t wish to write becos he wont be paid like srk or bhansali, it is better that he doesn’t write, bcos he will do a mediocre job anyway. Money can and will bring in too many writers but quality writers will write even if they are paid peanuts. Those are real writers or artists. Just rephrasing…I am not an artist (by profession) in any sense but there is an artist in all of us. The way we think is the greatest of all arts (Wow..I am slowly developing Sidhuisms..ha ha). Do u now agree Navin? I havent said anything new…just explained my previous post.
Aditarya…
Bandit Queen was ADAPTED from a novel…
there is a difference between ADAPTATION and COPY…
in adaptation artist is expressing himself through DIFFERENT medium…
……………………………………………..
hahaha…
what is this going on? BOLLYWOOD films…the groups…the families… hehehe…
fuck it guys…
about payment issues… there is no formal training… there is no structure…there is no Industry… so people make films and make them HIT on their own judgment…so they dont need creative minds…they need helpers… there is no concept of Assistant Directors in India… who ever are there ask them what their life is!… its SHIT…most of times they are doing production work instead of assisting in direction department…because there is nothing much to put in!…
those who are smart, they branch out, hook some producer , make films and set their careers…
others enter from TV or Ads… make money and then pursue the passion… ( they suffer a lot to over come their TV or AD hang overs….hehehe… after all 30 seconds and 90,120, 150 min…there is some difference!!!… How to HOLD the emotion…!)
…………………………………………..
Navin and Aditarya….
here is a great need to understand Shekar’s Chaos theory keenly…
Life has a DUAL nature…
Aditarya- Writers aren’t paid very well but thats bcos there are no good writers that can command money.”
Navin- So what came first, the chicken or the egg? There are plenty of good writers but they don’t write because they have no incentive to write original and quality stuff.
Aditarya is right…there are no Good writers…there are FEW!
Navin is right…there is no monetary motivation for a struggling writer to write original stuff!!!
So what is the way out?
Succumb to the situation and start writing with fuck all directors and earn money and get fucked…
or
earn money…keep your senses alive and branch out the day good opportunity comes your way…or good story comes your way, which will give you strength to branch out…
or
keep writing what ever you feel is good and try hard to make it sell…
bottom line……..
keep writing…
…………………………………………..
Aditarya- “It is the producers and the directors who are searching for good scripts.”
Navin- Yes, they are always searching for good scripts which they can steal or buy at a throwaway price.
Aditarya is right…they are always looking for good scripts…
Navin is right… some wouldnt hesitate to steal it…many would buy it for a throw away price…
in case some one steals…have guts to fight and waste time…
or
move on…
in case of buying at throw away price… WOW… u got some price… reduce smoking…eat one chapati more and survive and write the next one…
bottom line…
keep writing….
…………………………………………..
Aditarya- “I am not an artist in any sense but if u ask any real artist he will tell u that remuneration is last in his/her mind while performing or writing or directing.”
Navin- Absolute crap. When you admit that you are not an artist in any sense then how do you know what a “real artist” will say? LOL. How can you be so presumptuous. Go find out how much an Amitabh Bachchan or an Aamir Khan, or an SRK or a Sanjay Leela Bhansali charges for a film. I’m sure everyone will agree that all of them are “real artists”. Or are they not??
this is the part where another face of life pops out… its about being an artist…
if you are the one there emerges no need to tell others ever… u are contended…but not because of BLISS… but because of the inner unrest which makes u move ahead in your search and you care a fuck about the world…
any one can be a true artist…even a road side beggar, a house wife, an auto driver…any one…and its possible that amir Khan is no more an artist…may be he will be again for 5 min tomorrow… its a process… why do u think Monks meditated even after being enlightened…!!!
bottom line…
keep writing…
(writing is one profession…this applies to every other profession, field and stream of life…)
…………………………………………..
“I said it is last in their mind WHILE PERFORMING”
Dear Aditarya,
Ofcourse, nobody thinks of money *while performing*. It is of much help if the money aspect of any performing art has already been sorted out beforehand, so that the artist can concentrate fully on his/her art.
We started off talking about Writing Scripts and not about other arts like Acting. There is a difference between these two arts. Let me explain to you the practicality of things. Writing quality scripts requires time. And if the amount paid to a writer is big, than he/she can devote more time to write a quality script. But if the amount paid for writing a script is peanuts, then the writer will have to write more number of scripts in the same amount of time to sustain himself/herself. Hence the quality of his/her work would suffer because he/she will have to work under tighter deadlines.
Unlike writing, enacting a scene takes the same amount of time irrespective of the payment you receive for it. So the performance of an actor would usually not depend on the money he/she receives, it has more to do with his/her calibre.
Quoting you: “all the names u took first proved their worth and then commanded money. They werent paid well in their first movie itself.”
Ya, but what if you are exploited even after you’ve proved your worth? The point I made is that Story/Script Writers are not paid FAIRLY as compared to people involved in other important departments of film-making here in Bollywood. There is a huge difference between the remunerations of Writers and Stars here, which is not the case in Hollywood. And that is why Hollywood/other foreign film-makers consistently churn out original films, where as we don’t.
Gopinath had raised the issue of originality (or the lack of it) in Bollywood films in his comment, which concerns primarily with the writing of stories/scripts. So to bring in Actors into this discussion as examples is absolutely irrelevant. Out of all the names you named, quoting you: “Naseeruddin Shah, Umrish puri (late), Shyam Benegal, Pankaj Kapur, Salim-Javed”………..only Salim-Javed were writers. I say *were* because Salim is almost retired since many years and Javed Saab too has stopped writing scripts and is only a Lyricist now. How many contemporary quality Story/Script writers’ names can you think of right now, without doing a google search?
Quoting you: “Money can and will bring in too many writers but quality writers will write even if they are paid peanuts.”
If *too* many writers come in because of money, then the law of demand and supply will take care of that, like everything else. I continue to strongly disagree with your statement “quality writers will write even if they are paid peanuts”. Money and Acclaim are two of the biggest motivators in Showbiz, and you are making a mistake in not acknowledging and undermining the importance of one of them.
Cheers!
Navin
Adityara, Bandit Queen was not based on a Novel. The original screen writer of Bandit Queen, Mala Sen, spent time with Phoolan Devi in prison and wrote a novel as she wrote the first draft of the screenplay, which screenplay then was further developed by Farrukh Dhondy and myself for the film. The novel and screenplay moved concurrently, though the Novel was released earlier. Shekhar
Sorry Shekhar I used a wrong example. Kedar, absolutely agree with u. My point was, money is not the main reason for lack of quality or original writers. That didn’t mean money is irrelevant. Art is not like a managerial job where better pay will motivate better. The motivational factors of an artist are usually different. Acclaim, name & fame – yes..they are the main motivational factors. But I stayed away from that bcos I dont believe most good filmmakers would steal somebody’s work though they might bargain on money. It could be more often common in C grade movies, but we are anyways talking about quality here. Navin I may not agree with u but the reasonings u have used this time are noteworthy. I enjoyed reading the alternate views from u this time.
U need 2 qualities to be a good writer – think good and put them into words beautifully. The problem in India is language. Most of us are neither good at English nor are we masters of Hindi or any other mother tongue. That eliminates most good thinkers and hence very few quality writers, be it films or novels.
Luvs,
Adi
Hi Shekhar,
Mr India will remain a landmark film for a pre-satellite channel Indian Generation. I have been hearing/reading that Boney kapoor is planning to make a sequel. Are u anyway involved with it…Just my 2 cents, classic films should not be touched upon and messed with…
BTW, am dying to know, who that cute girl in Mr India (the one that died during the Bomb blastin the Movie) was? … Is she currently acting in any movies?
Like H G Wells became a futurist from a writer by writing the novel Man on Moon, you have done the same with Mr. India concept which is going to be a reality.
sir,
I had seen Mr.India long days ago, and I am very hurry to see your next Hindi Film in Bollywood.
I want to be film maker like you please give me guidance?
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Hi Shekhar ji, S S Akal, I am a documentary film producer and Journalist based in Chandigarh, india. Recently i have produced a documentary film on the life of Maharaja Duleep Singh, its a very touching story, the film titled ‘ A Monument of Injustice’ has accalaimed world wide fame, and it was screened at the House of Commons, UK Parliamrent on 3rd July 07. I wish to meet you in this connection as I wish to bring the subject on big screen . Please reply if possible.
Sincere Rgds,
Amarjeet Singh
Shekhar,
Why “Mr. India” is missing from your list fo movies ?
PLease kindly tel me …who played tina in MrIndia
I was told that she was Anil Kapoor’s daughter…
Dear Mr. Kapur,
First of all i would like to thank you for giving us an unforgettable and memorable film like Mr. India. Sir, when i say that you are fantastic as a director in the film i am not exaggerating, i mean it. I still remember the characters arun(Mr.India), calendar, and offcourse mogambo. Sir, whenever i see this film on any tv channel i cherish upon my school days. It was a brilliant film and most probably India’s first Sci-fi. THANKING YOU FOR SUCH A FANTABULOUS MOVIES AND REQUEST YOU TO MAKE OF SEQUEL OF IT.
Regards,
Abhishek Bhatt
HI Shekhar,
I have the same question as Umesh’s (post #42).
Please tell us that who played Tina in Mr. India.
The little girl is really really sweet and innocent looking.. !!
Sumit.
Yes, She is Sonam Kapoor (by Wiki). She was 6 when the film release. She did good…….. ARUN BHAYA
sonam is born in 1985? so she cant be the small girl in mr.india released in 1987.. i wonder who it is that played the role
The cute girl In Mr. India. “ARUN BHAYA..” Any one knows her name?
Sonam Kapoor she is not. I am sure.
She gotta be some one else.
What is the name of the girl who played the character – Tina in Mr. India. What i remember from the magazines during that time was, Mr. Kapoor screened almost 200 girls and then selected this girl from London – if i remembered correctly that’s what i read in Filmfare.
that girl is named pallavi patkar.. not much info abt her
salman khan will be the best 4 roling mogambo