There's an anecdote that Arshad Warsi had shared in one of his earlier interviews to Business Standard. "Like all good Punjabis," Warsi had said, "Yash Chopra enjoys his drinks tremendously. Once he put his arm around me, and in that tipsy mood, advised me not to settle for mediocre films after Lage Raho Munnabhai. 'You're your biggest competitor, Arshad,' he said. That statement rings in my ears ever since." |
The dictum given to Warsi could have been a truth that the Grand-Daddy-of-Indian-Cinema has been coping with all these years "" Chopra, after all, is Chopra's strongest competitor. |
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Which is why his films have a unique way of hitting the silver screen every time. His films are flamboyant and lovingly sheltered in coats of excellent marketing. That's the magic of this 74-year-old man who gently presses his cinematic style on the pulse of the times that we live in. |
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From his first film, Dhool Ka Phool (1959), to films like Waqt (1965), to saccharine sagas like Silsila and Kabhi Kabhi, to films like Darr, Chandni, Lamhe (one of his personal favourites), Dhoom, Bunty aur Babli and Dhoom 2, Chopra has invariably held everyone in rapt attention. |
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Speaking of Dhoom 2, audiences are happily queuing at multiplexes and cinema halls to take a look at one of the most awaited films of 2006. |
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The latest Coke commercial has especially been created around the film (starring Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Bipasha Basu, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra) and advance booking is slated to pour back at least Rs 20 crore in the first weekend from multiplexes in major metros alone. |
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Another Rs 12-15 crore is expected to come from other cities and smaller towns and going by the logistics, Dhoom 2 (released with 900 prints in India and the overseas market) is easily going to race ahead as far as advance bookings of Indian films is concerned. Clearly, this Rs 40-crore film is all set to become a winner at the box office. |
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Chopra "" even though some of his films have stumbled at the box office "" has gradually learnt the nuances of movie making. Anil Kapoor, in an interview to a film glossy, referred to Chopra as the only filmmaker in the industry who didn't owe investors any money. |
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Luckily for Chopra, his older son Aditya Chopra has lent his own charm in filmmaking, while younger son Uday Chopra continues to struggle in daddy's films. Chopra, as some insiders say, is shrewd and ruthless. To others like Amitabh Bachchan, he's a friend who promptly offered a desperate Bachchan a role in Mohabbatein. |
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He not only grooms directors like Kunal Kohli and Siddharth Anand under him, but also distributes films and produces a spate of them. Why, in a bid to control the market, he even floated his own music company some years ago. A sensible move as now he controls the copyright of his films' music and escapes paying royalty. |
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Clearly, Mr Chopra, like his numerous films, is a blockbuster himself. |
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