Not One to Sit Around and Sulk

Bombay Velvet’s shocking box-office performance notwithstanding (the film opened to a dismal Rs 16 crore opening weekend), Ranbir Kapoor stuck to his commitment to participate in a charity football match in Surat last Sunday. The actor showed up with Abhishek Bachchan, Arjun Kapoor, Dino Morea and others, a pair of dark glasses perched on his nose, outwitting the dozens of TV camera crews that were hoping to catch any hint of disappointment or resignation on the actor’s face.

Not only did the majority of critics pan Anurag Kashyap’s ambitious film, at best praising its solid technical accomplishments and Ranbir’s clearly impressive performance, the paltry collections appeared to be the final stab in the already expensive film’s coffin. Amidst polarising responses on social media—fanboys wrote impassioned pleas to ‘give the film a chance’, haters didn’t bother to hide their glee while taking down both the film and its director—Kashyap himself stood firmly by the film in a long Facebook post: ‘Maybe when the shock of the narrative wears down, you will re- visit it in the calm of your homes and will get into it. Maybe our experimenting with the narrative didn’t work for most but I firmly believe in the film. This is the film I wanted to make and I am glad I got to make it.’ Thanking dozens of his collaborators and supporters, Kashyap further went on to make it clear that he wasn’t done making the movies he believed in, and asked well-wishers not to worry about him: ‘I am solid. We are solid.’ Borrowing that classic line from Terminator, he ended his post promising to return soon to the only job he loves.

Anyone expecting a similar outpouring of emotion from Ranbir will likely be disappointed. It appears that the star has decided not to waste his time on postmortems, apologies, or in playing the blame game. The pressure may no doubt be mounting, given that this is now his third dud following Besharam and Roy, but the actor is reportedly comforted by the knowledge that his next two releases are relatively ‘safe’ films helmed by directors whom he’s previously delivered hits with. Imtiaz Ali’s Tamasha opens in November, and it has been described as a light-hearted romantic film that re-pairs Ranbir with his red-hot-right-now Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani co-star Deepika Padukone. That film will be followed by Anurag Basu’s Jagga Jasoos in June next year, a detective story in which the actor is cast opposite his real-life girlfriend Katrina Kaif. And if he still needs some blockbuster back-up, don’t forget he starts shooting Karan Johar’s romantic film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil starting September this year, which will also likely release in 2016.

Error of Judgement?

While on the subject of Karan Johar and his next film, the director joked to me during an interview recently that the reason he cast Anushka Sharma opposite Ranbir in the film is to assuage his own guilt for potentially aborting her acting career even before it had taken off. “When Adi (Aditya Chopra) showed me her photographs and her screen test for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, I tried to convince him she was totally wrong for the part. I just didn’t think she had it. It’s a good thing he ignored my warning and had the foresight to go with her,” Karan explained. Today, Johar admits his opinion has changed dramatically: “She’s got this vulnerability, this very authentic girl-next-door quality which makes her accessible and relatable to the viewer. She’s also a powerhouse of talent, which we saw in NH10 recently.” He further added that he’s given her “the best role that I’ve written for any female actor in my writing and directing career”, and then revealed that he received a few disappointed texts from rival actresses when he announced his cast for the film a few months ago. One top leading lady, he says, simply sent him an SMS with a frown.

Friends No More

Things have reportedly gotten so ugly between these once-friends that a top star’s former wife was not invited to attend the recent marriage ceremony of a couple that are particularly close friends of hers. The reason cited was that another actor and his wife, the one who was once thick with the star’s ex-wife, had confirmed they would be there together. Relations between the star’s ex wife and the other actor’s wife have been very frosty since rumours surfaced that they might be involved in a messy love triangle.

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Rajeev Masand

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