Agneepath, which released yesterday to a thunderous response, has broken Day 1 Box Office records by collecting almost Rs. 25 crore nett. Needless to say all those associated with the film are on cloud nine.
Agneepath's leading lady Priyanka Chopra too is thrilled with the response to the film and her character. Says the actress, "Agneepath has redefined the power of Indian Box Office for all of us. It's heartening to see the strength of the Indian cinema audiences growing like this. We all were very confident of the film but for this kind of success and unprecedented number that it has posted on day one we must thank our audience."
Priyanka plays a Maharastrian mulgi Kaali Kawde who is Vijay Dinanath Chauhan's (Hrithik Roshan) love interest and pillar of support in the film. After impressing us with her act in Kaminey, PC has once again proved that her mettle with Agneepath. Her sequences with Hrithik have indeed been loved by one and all.
With Agneepath, Priyanka extends her huge popularity not just across multiplexes but across single screens as well. She is no doubt thrilled that Karan Johar thought of her for this pivotal role as it's her first out and out mass commercial entertainer.
Watch Video: "Hrithik Is Really Really Focused....": Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra elated with Agneepaths success
In 2003, it was Kaakha Kaakha that put South Indian director Gautham Menon into the spotlight. But before that it was in 2001 when he tried his hands in Bollywood with Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein. The film didn't work and post that Menon kept his feet firm in South Indian cinema making hits after hits till Fox extended their hand to remake his earlier Tamil blockbuster Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa now titled in Hindi as Ekk Deewana Tha. For a man who loved Notting Hill and DDLJ, for a man who defines 'Love' as - 'Never to say Sorry or Thank You', Gautham Menon surely comes across as a director who has his sense and sensibilities right when it comes to making love stories. He tried tested and failed with his debut movie but it's the trying and testing time for him right now with Prateik and Amy Jackson attempting to win over the audiences hearts with their 'love'ly love story. We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. Well, it's time! Time to fall in love!
In times when directors are busy churning comedies, rom-coms, thrillers and horrors, you are one of those rare ones who is making love story.
I am a love story freak. I love telling love stories, rather making it. Most of these stories that I am able to film are drawn from real life and from the people I know. I am not being modest but people identify with these love stories. Ekk Deewana Tha is one such story that people will surely connect with.
How did the idea to cast Amy Jackson come to you?
The idea to cast Amy Jackson in Ekk Deewana Tha began when I was clear in my head that I wanted to cast a new face and not the heroines that audiences have seen or known over the years. I wanted her character to walk into the heart of the audience straight away. It's that mystery in a fresh face that the audience always wants to see. I had seen a Tamil film that Amy had done where she plays herself. I also knew the director of that movie who told me that she was very good with her lines. People were a bit apprehensive about me casting Amy in the
movie. But then we brought her down, got her to do the look test, we came with the right kind of clothes and gave her lines way in advance. She gave her shot in one take and she is really hard working.
Tell me something about Prateik's streak in acting.
Prateik is a vulnerable actor. Underdogs are here to stay and Prateik is here to stay. There is a streak in him that's brilliant. I've loved him in Dhobi Ghat. He is a fine actor. This is a first solo hero movie for Prateik even though he had done My Friend Pinto. But that movie had too many supporting casts. This movie is entirely him. He has an endearing quality in him that girls are going to swoon over once they see him in Ekk Deewana Tha.
Getting A.R. Rahman to say yes is a difficult job now-a-days considering he is the busiest musician in the world.
A.R. Rahman has heard and liked my work I've done since the past decade in South Indian movies. When I approached him for this movie, he didn't take more than two minutes to give a positive nod to my Tamil movie titled Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa now being remade into Hindi titled Ekk Deewana Tha. The songs from the Tamil were highly popular and we then remade the movie into Telugu titled Ye Maaya Chesave. The Telugu songs too became a rage. When it comes to A.R Rahman, you do not question his abilities, you only fall in love with his tunes. In the Hindi version he has come out with three extra songs.
Like Master, like Student?
I've been a big Ilayaraja fan actually. But when Roja released, there was a sudden revolution in music. I've been born and brought up on Ilayaraja's music. I've really admired his work over the years and when A.R Rahman started to work with him, I knew his music would be something to look forward to. Like master, like student.
Ekk Deewana Tha is your second Hindi release since 2001's Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein. Why a decade long for your second movie?
My debut Hindi movie Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein didn't do really well at the box office but for me Tamil is my language. I did a few super hit movies down South. One was starring Kamal Haasan called Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu, that was before he did Dasavatharam. I've also worked with Suriya in Kaakha Kaakha that was a huge hit. Language is just a language but it's easier for me to make films down South. I guess Ekk Deewana Tha had to be told to a wider audience after I made it in Telugu and Tamil and when Fox approached me, I couldn't say no.
Name your top three love stories.
I like Notting Hill and I thought it was a beautifully woven love story. I love Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge because of its story and Kajol. She was absolutely brilliant. My last but not the least is a Kamal Haasan produced movie titled Raja Paarvai where the protagonist (played by Kamal Haasan) is blind and there's a girl who falls in love with him. These three rank in my all time favourite love stories.
How do you define 'love'?
Love is definitely not what's shown in Hindi cinema these days. Love is when you smile and feel about something. You never have to say Sorry or Thank You, that to me is love.
Watch 'Ekk Deewana Tha' promo:
Ekk Deewana Tha had to be told to wider audience - Gautham Menon One of the hottest babes who will be making her B-town debut this year is Amy Jackson. Amy is gearing up for her Bollywood debut opposite Prateik in Gautham Menon's love story Ekk Deewana Tha. The film has Amy playing a Catholic girl called Jessie.
For the uninitiated, Amy Jackson is a British model who won the Miss Teen World competition in 2008. She made her acting debut with the Tamil film Madrasapattinam in the year 2010 and is now all set to sizzle in Bollywood with her maiden film Ekk Deewana Tha.
The gorgeous model turned actress has even done some sizzling hot photo shoots for top magazines like FHM. To check out Amy's FHM photo-shoot video, click on the link below:
Check out the video: Amy Jackson is hot in lingerie
Check out the video: Amy Jackson - FHM Upgrade Girlfriend Photoshoot
Check out the video: Amy Jackson on the FHM Lingerie Special!
Check Out Hot and sexy Amy JacksonLong before the damsel in the den Katrina Kaif signs her writhe petition junta ke naam, the film's imposing villain and by extension the film, have written their destiny in bold bloodied letters. E-mail didn't exist in the 1990s.
Indeed Sanjay Dutt as Kancha lording over a no-man's-land called Mandwa where the only law that exists is lawlessness, is so formidable in his vile antics, you fear for the hero, a decent bloke with eyes that tell a million untold stories.
Hrithik Roshan opts for a perfectly-tuned low-pitched performance to offset Dutt's larger-than-life diabolism. For sure the combination of the flamboyant and the understated works .Although by the time the two get to each other's throat almost three hours have flown by, you never feel the weight of the footage. An unbearable lightness of being vengeful pervades the storytelling.
This then, ladies and gentleman, is Agneepath Retold or Agneepath Deconstructed. Either way, the revenge formula never seemed more rousing in its invocation of Good and Evil in their most elementary avatars. Debutant writer-director Karan Malhotra has chosen to restructure one of the most complex but unsuccessful Amitabh Bachchan starrer of the 1990s. There are no punctuation marks in the narrative. The plot leaps at you through its sanguinary design, building brick by brick an edifice of low -life and high-drama.
The bleak intimidating landscape, a bizarre bewildering blend of the Kafkaesque and the Mukul Anand-esque, captures the feeling of dread and devastation more effectively than any recent massy film. This new-rage Agneepath retains the core of Mukul Anand's 1990 failed-drama.And yes, it retains Harivnansh Rai's 'Angeepath' poem, though, alas, we don't get to hear Amitabh Bachchan recite the eloquent lines this time.
Malhotra's script alters many of the original's dramatic moments, adds new characters (most notable among them, Rishi Kapoor's Rauf Lala),and finally fine-tunes and assimilates the plot's subliminal statement on crime and retribution to a pitch where we often hear the screaming protests of social inequality through the protagonist's pain-lashed expressions of angst disgust and rebellion rather than his words.
Indeed Hrithik Roshan opts for a subdued interpretation of his vengeful character where he could've easily been larger-than-life. Roshan lets Sanjay Dutt take charge of the blizzard of the bravura. Dutt is delightfully in-form here. During the Chikni chameli item song when he quizzes the newly-arrived Mandwa-resident Vijay on why he's where he is, Dutt's eyes go from the molten to the meltingâ¦His best in years.
But the finest performance comes from Rishi Kapoor. Playing a loathsome flesh trader and drug dealer who takes Vijay under his wings, Kapoor delivers a bludgeoning homage to skin-crawling villainy. A glorious departure from his lover-boy image. The prolonged sequence where Roshan takes on Rishi Kapoor is the single-most riveting episode of filmed violence in Indian cinema since Gabbar Singh's mayhem over the Thakur's family in Sholay.
Indeed, Agneepath works so wonderfully within its high-voltage masala maad-dhaad genre because of the actors who instinctively grasp the street-level gut-wrenching grammar of debutant Karan Malhotra's storytelling. Barring Priyanka Chopra who seems strangely cosmetic in a land of looming credibility, every character shines through the crime-drama maze in a swirling haze of high-pitched drama.
The action sequences by Abbas Ali Mogul are staged to convey the same rawness as Dabangg, but without the sense of comic book fantasy that made the action in Dabangg bearable, even comical. In Agneepath every blow that Hrithik Roshan so manfully receives on his chin makes you flinch. You wait for him to give back as good as he gets.
The battering is relentless. This is not a film for the faint-hearted. Its basic structure and the leitmotif of the 'tree of death' (where Vijay Chauhan's father was hanged and where his wrongdoer will finally, meet his nemesis) draw audiences into a vortex of viciousness and sadism. This is a dark brooding world where pre-teen girls are raped sold and beaten up, where boys learn to use the gun before they learn to masturbate. This is a world where the laws of retribution and redemption are re-written according to who rules the underworld. This is Agneepath where the poet gets hanged and the pervert gets promoted.
First-time director Karan Malhotra revels in the language of the commercial Hindi cinema. The characters in Vijay's chawl are all good-hearted. Every character in the villain Kancha's kingdom is a creep or a cowardâ¦take your pick. The battle lines are tightly and compellable drawn. The pace is breakneck .And the melodrama flows in a tense torrent signifying the return of the vendetta formula in all its Eastman-colour glory.
The film's mob scenes of violence and religion often merge on the violent streets of Mumbai and in the lawless backwaters of the imaginary island of diabolism Mandwa. The narrative features a Gokul Asthami matki-breaking sequence at the start and a Ganesh visarjan sequence towards the end, both shot spectacularly on the streets of Mumbai.
The background music is a suitable banshee of memories and pain. Since Hrithik Roshan has chosen the language of understatement to portray the wronged wounded social outcast Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, it is up to the eloquence-level of the soundtrack to supplement the hero's stunning silences.
Every component of Malhotra's jagged drama falls into place, with a resounding thump. Agneepath is brilliant in its brutality. It's a riveting and hectic homage to the spirit of the cinema in the 1970s when revenge reigned supreme. And content was King. This new Agneepath takes us back to the era when there was no computer or cellphones. And communication with the audience was immediate and electrifying.
Editor 
Agneepath, which released yesterday to a thunderous response, has broken Day 1 Box Office records by collecting almost Rs. 25 crore nett. Needless to say all those associated with the film are on cloud nine.
In 2003, it was Kaakha Kaakha that put South Indian director Gautham Menon into the spotlight. But before that it was in 2001 when he tried his hands in Bollywood with Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein. The film didn't work and post that Menon kept his feet firm in South Indian cinema making hits after hits till Fox extended their hand to remake his earlier Tamil blockbuster Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa now titled in Hindi as Ekk Deewana Tha. For a man who loved Notting Hill and DDLJ, for a man who defines 'Love' as - 'Never to say Sorry or Thank You', Gautham Menon surely comes across as a director who has his sense and sensibilities right when it comes to making love stories. He tried tested and failed with his debut movie but it's the trying and testing time for him right now with Prateik and Amy Jackson attempting to win over the audiences hearts with their 'love'ly love story. We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. Well, it's time! Time to fall in love!
Tell me something about Prateik's streak in acting.
Name your top three love stories.
Long before the damsel in the den Katrina Kaif signs her writhe petition junta ke naam, the film's imposing villain and by extension the film, have written their destiny in bold bloodied letters. E-mail didn't exist in the 1990s.
The bleak intimidating landscape, a bizarre bewildering blend of the Kafkaesque and the Mukul Anand-esque, captures the feeling of dread and devastation more effectively than any recent massy film. This new-rage Agneepath retains the core of Mukul Anand's 1990 failed-drama.And yes, it retains Harivnansh Rai's 'Angeepath' poem, though, alas, we don't get to hear Amitabh Bachchan recite the eloquent lines this time. 
Indeed, Agneepath works so wonderfully within its high-voltage masala maad-dhaad genre because of the actors who instinctively grasp the street-level gut-wrenching grammar of debutant Karan Malhotra's storytelling. Barring Priyanka Chopra who seems strangely cosmetic in a land of looming credibility, every character shines through the crime-drama maze in a swirling haze of high-pitched drama. 
The background music is a suitable banshee of memories and pain. Since Hrithik Roshan has chosen the language of understatement to portray the wronged wounded social outcast Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, it is up to the eloquence-level of the soundtrack to supplement the hero's stunning silences. 
