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The boom time for the Mumbai film industry is not translating into windfalls for top Bollywood production house Yash Raj Films (YRF), with its first offering of 2008, "Tashan", failing to live up to the hype. Tashan sinking like there's no tomorrow, this was waiting to happen we guess. We are told that poor Kareena has been crying buckets over the sad and terrifying turn of events. Her well-wishers are worried at how her market price has come crashing down. What's more, at the Zee awards held in London recently, Kareena was shedding copious tears away from the camera, putting her best face forward to the world at large. Poor dear! All that year-long-toil over the sculpted body came to nought (question is, will she swing back to her earlier dimensions?). What has alarmed both her and Saif is the way the audience rejected their pairing. Now, interestingly, all the men from the film, especially Akshay and Saif have begun playing the blame game, saying, they had not seen the end product. "No trial shows happened and Saif's role has been brutally chopped," claims a friend of you-know-who.
But there's more. More vicious rumours generating from the pro-Kareena-Akshay-Saif camp seem to be insinuating that a certain King may have greased a certain somebody's palms to engineer this disaster. Especially since Akshay has been giving a lot of stars sleepless nights. In recent months Akki and King Khan rivalry are making headlines in the media and Akshay popularity is on all time high in overseas which is one territory that SRK guards close to his heart. Since Tashan was Akshay first release this year and its being washed away like this can put a negative impact on his upcoming releases, which can give good ground to King to retain his crown.
While in 2007, YRF's tally of flops outweighed that of hits, their first release this year has failed to charm critics and the audience. Though heavy on formula and style, the film starring the reigning star of the box-office, Akshay Kumar, and media's favourite star couple, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, has no story to tell. Seems that writer-director Vijay Krishna Acharya was so busy packaging egos that he forgot what he wanted to say in Tashan making it one of YRF's biggest flop.
The fact that Tashan did not release in several multiplexes due to a long-standing tiff with cinema hall owners over sharing of revenues has been a major dampener. The country's top production house has been trying to get multiplex owners to agree on a new revenue sharing formula. Their offer of keeping 55 percent of the box-office collections in the first week was rejected by exhibitors. It’s releasing in single-screen theatres is economically less profitable as fewer number of shows can be screened each day and the cost of tickets is much lower than in multiplexes.
For YRF, the third highest spender in Bollywood at the moment after Reliance Entertainment and Indian Films, the fate of "Tashan" will serve as a cautioner. Reliance Entertainment and Indian Films, which will be investing Rs.5 billion and Rs.4.4 billion in the industry over the next year-and-a-half respectively, are the biggest moneybags of the industry at the moment. But among the seasoned banners, it is YRF that leads the pack. They have both the talents as well as enjoy faith of the audiences. The Rs.120 billion strong Mumbai-based Hindi film industry is inundated with public and private investment. Entry of corporate bigwigs has shaken up traditional production houses.
This year, YRF, is releasing as many as five films across genres - thriller, comedy, romance and animation, starring some of the top actors and directors. Though the number is small in comparison to other banners, the banner is not known to churn out so many in a single year. YRF have been going through a bad patch ever since the average performance of Ta Ra Rum Pum and debacle of mega-starrer Jhoom Barabar Jhoom last year.
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