Cerebral Shangrila

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

The Reign Man -- Bollywood

No. I am not talking about Amitabh Bachhan. In a fickle industry like Bollywood where 90% of the movies end up losing money, there is one man who has reigned the kingdom for a long time. He is the masterful marketer in bollywood. His banner has its own distribution, music, design and home entertainment sections, and is the undisputed leader in show business.

They call him the king of romance .His body of work is amazing -- Dhool ka Phool,Waqt,Ittefaq,Daag,Deewaar,Kabhie Kabhie,Trishul,Silsila,chandni,Lamhe,Darr,Dil to pagal hai,Veer-zaara. He is the one and only -- Yash Chopra , who presides over one of the biggest banners in Bollywood (Yashraj Films).

Though I am not a big fan of candy-floss romances , the youthfulness of Yash chopra's films always leave me exhilirated. Heroines always look the most beautiful in his movies and the music & locales are exotic as ever.

Here is an article in Screen where Yashji recollects his banner launch .

P.S : Yashji always worked with the best. He has an ear for poetry.His regulars were Sahir (until his death) and Javed Akhtar. Of course most of his songs have been sung by Lata.

4 Comments:

  • Ya, though he has dabbled in mainly love stories, he has made a film like Ittefaq (with a relatively new Rajesh Khanna) - a songless thiller, just over 2 hours. The movie was a hit and perhaps this shows that Chopra could have brought varied genres to screen with elan. Pity he didn't digress from the love story route.

    By Blogger Abhishek Chatterjee, at 8:32 PM  

  • I don't believe 90% of Bollywood films lose money, rather 90% of Bollywood films actually make money. Yash Chopra's films probably get back double or triple in profits. It has become a trend in India to declare your film flop for 2 reasons:

    1)To escape the greedy clutches of the underworld.
    2)To escape paying big money in taxes.

    Although I do watch Yash Chopra made movies, I think the very monopoly is killing the industry just like Microsoft. Small good movies lose out to these big movies that are not necessarily good. Yash Chopra has become just another blind brand loyalty following. And in a creative movie making industry this is bad news.

    By Blogger patiala pataka, at 10:51 AM  

  • 'DDLJ' (Dilwale...) was also from his house, isn't it? It was an interesting movie to watch...

    That was the only movie, which I had watched from his house.. :-)

    By Blogger Ram C, at 6:23 AM  

  • Abhi -- Yeah he never experimented much after that.

    Pataka -- Wish what u said was true for bollywood's sake !

    Ram.c -- yeah . he was the producer for the movie. His son directed it.

    By Blogger Cogito, at 11:25 AM  

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