For most Indians brought up on a staple diet of Bollywood, Mohammad Kashif Memon doing a Hrithik Roshan on “America’s Got Talent” show, would probably be seen as ridiculous, crazy, stupid, weird or anything else that’s equally dismissive. But, when the audience is mostly those who have little or no idea about Bollywood, “talent” can take a whole new meaning.
Interestingly, given this context, I found I was hooked onto the videos myself. If I had seen him on Indian TV, I’d have probably changed the channel in 3 seconds.
Moral of the story: Context is decisive.
PS: And, for those who haven’t seen the “real” thing (Hrithik Roshan in the movie “Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai”), here goes…Enjoy!!!
Some of the new breed of Bollywood directors like Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra have been blogging at Passion for Cinema (PFC). Ashvin Kumar (youngest of the 6 directors from India to have been nominated for an Oscar) has even recently released a preview of his movie, The Forest. Never imagined a Bollywood director would say something like “watch it on Facebook or YouTube”!
Also, they’re now open for submissions for the Online Film Festival for One Minute Movies. I liked the awards…nothing fancy, but definitely valuable for novice and amateur film makers, who’re looking for a good training ground. Check these out…
The winner of the PFCOne 2007 Festival gets to choose one of the following prizes followed by the runners up who select from the remaining prizes offered.
15 days Internship with Anurag Kashyap on the sets of his next film DEV D, in Delhi, approximately around December/January
Writing Internship with Hansal Mehta for his next movie, in Bombay, approximately around March/April 200830 days Internship with Pavan Kaul on his next proposed film, around mid 2008.15 days Theater internship with Ramu Ramanathan for Festivals and Plays, around end of December/JanuaryInternship with Onir on his next movie which begins around early to mid 200830 day Internship with Nishikant Kamat on his next movie which begins around April 2008
While the name, ‘FilmCamp’, sounds like an ‘un-conference’ for film making, the details on their website indicates a typical conference-like format. Either ways, the event sounds interesting and I’m guessing, it will attract a good response in Bangalore. Looking forward to it.
Last week, it was picking up passport application forms while grocery shopping. This week it’s “apply for a job while at the coffee shop”! Accenture has placed this drop box at Barista on 100 feet road, Indira Nagar (and I’m guessing it’s at other Barista outlets as well) for folks to apply for a job. I’m guessing you can drop your business card (in case one doesn’t have a resume handy!).
The strange thing is…the box is tucked into a corner, indoors inside the coffee shop. So, many of those who are seated outdoors wouldn’t get to see it. Beats the whole point?
Anyways, this is yet another pointer towards the increasingly cluttered recruitment space (especially in the IT industry) in Bangalore. Companies are now trying all sorts of things…I’ve seen URLs on the back of autorickshaws (Oracle’s not-so-attractive ad…I need to find a picture of that), mobile billboards/hoardings that are positioned right outside well-populated ‘technology parks’ (so the ‘target audience’ sees a huge ad for jobs at a competitor’s, as they walk out of the office) and now it’s drop boxes in coffee shops. HR is (trying to) get creative!
Moving on, here’s a picture of a crowd that gathered randomly to watch a Kannada film shooting that was happening in the Barista’s in Koramangala (I know it’s beginning to sound like, all I do is hang out at Barista’s)!
Nothing out of the ordinary, considering Bollywood and cricket celebrities have always been the first choice for marketers in India. Seems to make business sense, considering laptops seem to be selling really well in India now…
With prices of laptops crashing to desktop levels, PC makers in India expect every second computer sold to be a laptop in the next four to five years.
At present, the ratio of laptops to desktops in India is 20:80. However, in West Europe, Middle East and Singapore, the ratio is 60:40, in favour of laptops. In other markets like US, the ratio stands at about 45:55 for laptops to desktops. “The ratio will become 50:50 in the next few years with more and more users preferring laptops for increased portability,” says Hewlett Packard (HP) India director (consumer products) Rajiev Grover.
The “superstar” of Tamil movies, one of India’s most popular and among the highest paid actors in the country, Rajinikanth’s latest movie, Sivaji releases this weekend.
The preview of Sivaji doesn’t seem half as interesting as this video from one of his movies several years ago:
What I (and probably several million other people in the world) can’t understand is, how and why is Rajinikanth so popular in Japan, of all countries????!! Here’s some interesting stuff I found on the topic…
Some photos to start with…
More here: http://rajinifans.com/japanese/cm_city.asp
And, guess what? Rajini is on the wrapper of a Japanese snack product (garam masala chips) by a company called “Tohato”!!!
When the company wanted to market an Indian chips variety, it was looking for an Indian star with an appeal in Japan. So, you have Rajinikanth, accompanied by his Muthu, heroine Meena, flashing a broad smile from the green wrapper.
The Rajinikanth wrapper is such a hit that people are preserving it after consuming the snacks.
(Picture thanks to http://munmun.moo.jp/archives/artist/rajnikanth/)
Rajni’s blockbuster Odoru Maharaj (The Dancing Maharaja) found a special mention in the context of strengthening of Indo-Japan ties as Manmohan Singh, (Prime Minister of India), addressed Japanese law on Thursday.
Manmohan Singh – who is on a four-day visit to the country – referred to the 1995 movie in his address to the joint session of Diet (Japan’s Parliament) and said he was delighted to hear about its popularity among the young Japanese.
This is just such an amazing phenomenon to study, from a cultural point of view, why a country like Japan should take to a Tamilian film star from Chennai? If and when I go to Japan, this is probably one of the first things I’ll be checking out…maybe find some Rajini fans in Japan and do some ‘contextual interviews’!
Heard this on a preview of Karan Johar’s interview of Ekta Kapoor, the unofficial queen of Indian soaps, “On the big screen, men are idolized and women are fantasized…while on TV, it’s the women who are idolized and men are fantasized”. She went onto assert that it’s the women who watch TV, not the men.
One infers that she’s referring to the “masses” (whom she said she’s targeting) who watch her soaps day-in and day-out. Considering the popularity of her soaps (for quite some time now), she probably knows what she’s talking about.
Wife & I going on movie date 1st time after our son was born 11 mnths ago! Amazing such "normal" things become significant in a new context! 4 days ago
Finally saw #Ishqiya! Was it @RajeevMasand who said see it for peek into real rural emerging (north) india? Very true! Vidya Balan terrific! 4 days ago
