Hollywood films giving Bollywood a run for its money?

June 6, 2016

Mumbai, Jun 6: As Bollywood touches its half-way mark in 2016, the industry looks back at a rather slow box office while Hollywood movies stand tall after causing quite a stir in the domestic market during last six months.

junglebookThe biggest example is "The Jungle Book", which created history of sorts at the Indian box office. The live action adaptation of the book of the same name, released on April 8, a week before its US premiere to avoid box office clash with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's "Fan".

As anticipated, "Fan" took a massive opening, the highest this year, at nearly 19 crore, clocking a whopping 52.35 crore in the weekend and opposed to this, "The Jungle Book" opened at 10 crores and registered a Rs 40 crore weekend.

The box office for both the films, however, completely changed later, with the 50-year-old "Dilwale" actor's film struggling to reach even 90 crores while the Disney project zoomed past the 100 crore mark.

By the end of its run, "Fan" made nearly 85 crores while "The Jungle Book" shattered all the previous records held by any Hollywood film released in India, earning approximately 183 crores.

This is the highest earning film of the year so far, beating Akshay Kumar's "Airlift" which is the biggest Bollywood hit of 2016 so far with 127 crore.

The margin between Bollywood's highest grosser of the year and "The Junglebook", that of nearly 60 crores, is alarming.

"The Jungle Book" is not the only Hollywood film which scored better at the domestic box office.

The comedy-superhero film "Deadpool", released alongside Katrina Kaif-starrer "Fitoor" on February 12, fared better. The Ryan Reynolds-starrer collected approximately 29 crores at the domestic box office while "Fitoor", helmed by "Kai Po Che" director Abhishek Kapoor, managed to collect a total of nearly 19 crore.

One of the most awaited superhero movies of the year, "Batman v Superman" opened to mixed reviews but managed to put up a total of Rs 36 crore in one week.

The Zack Snyder directed film clashed with John Abraham' "Rocky Handsome", and easily beat the latter.

Animated film "Kung Fu Panda 3" also clocked impressive collections despite facing competition from Kareena Kapoor Khan's "Ki & Ka".

The American-Chinese film raked in Rs 32 crore at the Indian box-office, which was just nearly 20 crore short of "Ki & Ka", which made Rs 51 crores.

A more prominent example of Hollywood films doing much better business than their Bollywood counterparts can be seen with the collections of "Captain America: Civil War".

The mega-budget superhero action movie clocked Rs 27 crore in the first weekend.

The film, which starred Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson, was dubbed in Hindi where actor Varun Dhawan voiced the character of Captain America.

The movie registered a total collection of approximately 59 crore, which is more than Priyanka Chopra's "Jai Gangaajal", Emraan Hashmi's "Azhar" and even Amitabh Bachchan starrer "Wazir".

Not only this, the recently released "X-Men: Apocalypse" clashed with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan-starrer "Sarbjit" and had a better opening week than the biopic.The superhero film clocked Rs 26 crore in its first week while the Omung Kumar-directed movie made nearly Rs 22 crore.

The Friday of May 27 saw the release of three Bollywood films, "Phobia", "Veerappan" and "Waiting" and one Hollywood project, "The Angry Birds Movie".

The animated action-adventure comedy earned Rs 9.4 crore in the opening weekend, more than the combined weekend collection of the three Bollywood films.

Interestingly, almost all the Hollwyood films which did better business than Bollywood movies were either successful franchsie movies or big-budget superhero projects.

Hollywood movies, which did not boast massive CGI action pieces, managed to do decent business at the domestic market like Alejandro G Inarritu's "The Revenant".

Despite the Academy Award, the Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer earned a modest Rs 3.5 crore in its opening weekend in India.

There are still many Hollywood big-wigs releasing this year including "Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist", "Suicide Squad", "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them" among others.

It remains to be seen how much will these films affect upcoming Bollywood movies.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Los Angeles, Jan 27: Pop-rock innovator Billie Eilish on Sunday bested a packed field to win the Grammy for Song of the Year -- which honors songwriters -- for her hit "Bad Guy."

The 18-year-old beat veteran acts Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey along with newcomers Lewis Capaldi and Lizzo to take home the coveted honor.

She shares the prize with her older brother Finneas O'Connell, her primary creative collaborator.

The pair were gracious onstage, with Eilish telling her fellow nominees: "I grew up watching all of you."

"We just make music in a bedroom together," said O'Connell. "We still do that and they let us do that. (...) This is to all of the kids making music in your bedrooms today -- you're going to get one of these."

Eilish was among this year's most nominated artists with six nods, and is the youngest person ever nominated in all four of the top categories.

Best song was her second award of the night. She won earlier for best pop vocal album for "when we all fall asleep, where do we go?"

Before she released the album in March 2019, Eilish had already assembled a fervent online following for her bold, often haunting pop sound.

In August, Eilish became the first musician born in the 2000s to top the Billboard Hot 100, when she dethroned Lil Nas X, who spent a record-breaking 19 weeks at the top with viral hit "Old Town Road."

The artist named Billboard's 2019 Woman of the Year has also written and will perform the theme song for the upcoming James Bond film "No Time To Die."

"I feel like I'm not supposed to be here," she told E! television on the red carpet before the gala. "Life is weird."

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News Network
April 19,2020

Mumbai, Apr 19: It is important to stay united and have faith in each other to fight the coronavirus pandemic, veteran lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar said on Sunday, expressing concerns over the attack on healthcare workers and cases of communal tension in the country.

In a video shared by Akhtar's wife, veteran actor Shabana Azmi on Twitter, the writer urged people to stand together in this time of crisis.

"The country is undergoing a crisis at this point of time. To fight this crisis called coronavirus, it is important for us to be united. If we will keep suspecting each other or won't understand each other's intentions, there will be no unity, then how will we fight it?

"You must salute these doctors who are endangering their lives to test you. Unless you get tested, you will not know whether you have the disease or not. You can be treated only after that. It's a matter of stupidity that, I've heard, people are pelting stones on those doctors. This should not be done," Akhtar said in the 2 minute-long clip.

The 75-year-old lyricist also said that targeting a particular community defeats the goal of unity.

"I also hear that shops of a particular community are being shut, 'thelas' are being overturned or people are hit so that they can flee. This is not how unity works. We will have to believe each other. We all are citizens of this country," he said.

Akhtar appealed to the Muslim community to offer prayers from home in the holy month of Ramzan, which will begin from April 24 or April 25.

"I request all the Muslim brothers that now that Ramzan is coming, please say your prayers but make sure that this doesn't cause problems to anyone else. The prayers that you do in the mosque, you can do that at home. According to you, the house, the ground, this all has been made by Him. Then you can do your prayers anywhere," he said.

"Ensure that your speech, slogans and deeds don't create any suspicion in the minds of others. And to all the other citizens of the country, I'd say please have faith in each other, practice unity, don't resort to hatred. Only with the help of love and trust, we will be able to fight with the coronavirus," he added.

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News Network
May 11,2020

Mumbai, May 11: Model-cum-actress Poonam Pandey was on Sunday booked by Mumbai Police for violating the coronvirus-induced lockdown norms, an official said.

An FIR was registered against Panedy and a person accompanying her by the Marine Drive Police.

She was found roaming in her high-end car at Marine Drive without any reason, he said.

"A case has been registered against Pandey and Sam Ahmad Bombay (46) under sections 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of a disease dangerous to life) and 188 (Disobedience of order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under provisions of the National Disaster Act," senior police inspector Mrityunjay Hiremath said.

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