Vidhu Vinod Chopra is a stalwart in the hindi film industry. Farha Khan, a former dance master, too thinks of herself as another stalwart and her non-prime time television comedian brother Sajid Khan (in Channels like Zee movies) also thinks of himself as another who's who in the movie industry (Sajid also acted in a film Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate where Farha was the choreographer of the movie).
Now both the brother sister duo are successful directors, Farah Khan got Shahrukh Khan as his her mentor hero for her first two movies, Sajid Khan got Nadiadwala Grandsons as her his debut movie, 'Heyy Babby' producer (why there is this extra 'y' on Heyy and extra 'b' on Babby??? Its numerology...duffer). Farah Khan's husband Shirish Kunder also directed his first movie Jaan-E-Mann which was again produced by Nadidiwala. Also, may be it wont be irrelevant to mention here that, for last 8-10 years Farah Khan has been Nadidwala Brother's favorite choreographer for all their films.
Now, you would wonder when Bhawana Talwar is fighting her case for the film 'Dharm' for the Oscar race, why Sajid Khan on this earth is writing an open mail to Vidhu Vinod Chopra via media. Why he is so much bothered? Who is scratching his back? He thinks his child-shit-clad-napkin-splashing-on-your-face movie Heyy Babby should be represented in Oscar? Or he is feeling the pain since Shah Rukh's movie 'Chak De' was not being included in the race. Beganey ke shadi mein Abdullah diwana.
Either way, this small time, non prime time, B grade television channel's (like Zee Cinema's Ikke Pe Ikka) comedy chatter box, Sajid Khan wants to take this social responsibility of uplifting causes like promotion of serious cinema in his shoulder or he is paid/unpaid/wanna be paid person from Shahrukh Khan. (SRK did a guest cameo in Heyy Babby, in rerurn she man he man Sajid acknowledged it by splahing 'Love You Shahrukh' in the biggest possible font during the end title, even bigger than the name of the movie!!!)
Look at the letter Sajid wrote to media, excerpts
Can I also add that cumulative global revenue of all the films directed by you (Eklavya - The Royal Guard, Mission Kashmir, Kareeb, 1942: A Love Story, Parinda, Khamosh, Sazaye Maut, An Encounter with Faces) do not even come near what my debut film Heyy Babyy has earned (and still counting)?
Please remember that, Sajid Khan is writing this mail to a person who has more
than 25 years of experience, who is immensely respected for his body of work and path breaking cinema. I wonder, if Sajid Khan is an idiot or a complete scrap. He is comparing box office success of 'An Encounter with Faces' with 'Heyy Babby', doesn't this man know that this was Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 'non-commercial' short documentary film which was nominated for 1979 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject? His diploma film Murder at Monkey Hill in FTII (Film and Television Institute, Pune) won him not only a National Award but also a certificate of merit from Montreal and Leipzig Film Festivals.
I hope Sajid knows that there is a film institute like this exists in India in Pune. Every year, students from the institute across all departments watch, analyze and criticize Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Murder at Monkey Hill, it's kind of part of syllabus there.
Pic: Murder at Monkey Hill (1976) was Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s diploma film for FTII. Still considered as one of the path breaking movies.
Sajid and Farha Khan should also have dreams of putting their classic cults (like Main Hoon Na, Om Shanti Om and Heyy Baby) in such serious movie school syllabus/library.
Now lets look at what Farha Khan has to say about Chopra in recent interview
How can I ever think of criticising Vidhu Vinod Chopra? For that matter, how dare anyone? Don't you all know that he is single handedly responsible for the INVENTION of cinema?
See the sarcastic satire? Grow up baby, wake up to a new world, 70s is long gone. You can not even belong to that era even, however hard you may try. Go and watch Johnny Gaddar instead and you will realize without copying a super hit and or assembling super stars, how to embed a generation in a two hour movie (without song and dance, off course).
One thing more, it seems brother-sister jori dont like the fact that other dircetors-producers also can be close to SRK for professional reasons. (Hint: Vidhu Vinod Chopra plans to sign SRK for nexr Munnabhai, so, that also may go against him. I also remember what Farha famosuly said to Asutosh Gawarikar after he made Swades with SRK, Farha said, movies like these are sheer wastage of money and resource becuase they do not do justice to SRK's star power).....
Is it insecurity or what....what are you Farha without Shah Rukh??...what are you Sajid without Farha??
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I do totally agree with this. Farah and Sajid arent even close to vidhu vinod chopra. When you compare revenue, inflations, the time period and the business scenario should be taken care of. Today, the star power and demand for movies is so high that leading stars even charge as much as a movie budget made 2-3 years back.
Sajid's heybaby's main idea and major chunk is a direct copy of an english movie.
As for Farah, its just gloss with danace numbers which entice the indian audiences that generates the moolah. But the movies she make are scrap. Just because you can make some money out of it, does not mean you have made a good movie. For that, a bit of technical knowledge and basic understanding of making movies should be there. besides, i doubt whether she can even deliver a product worth watching without SRK.
To summarise, there's a long way these people needs to go before even comparing themselves with a qualified movie maker like vidhu vinod chopra
Posted by: Anonymous | July 31, 2008 6:29 PM | Permalink to Comment