‘QAYAMAT’ SCORES

With QAYAMAT retaining its hold over the box-office after the extra-ordinary opening, the distributors and exhibitors of the film are in a jubilant mood. Says a prominent distributor, "The exhibitors of 'B' and 'C' class, who have been craving for a hit for a long time now, are more than excited. The action sequences have done the trick."


But Harry attributes the fabulous opening to the right promotion. "The promos sent out the right signals. I was always confident of the film taking a good opening, but the kind of opening it eventually fetched, took me by surprise," Harry tells me.


However, the film-maker denies he's deleting a song from the film. In fact, the number of songs in the first half have come in for sharp criticism from most people. "Actualy, I was in two minds, whether to retain one of the romantic tracks or delete it," Harry divulges, "But when I saw that the audience didn't walk out when the two songs came in quick succession, I got the answers. The film has been accepted the way it is."


But Harry is confused whether to add the Raveena Tandon song in the film or not. Not many are aware that Raveena makes a special appearance in the film [she's cast opposite Suniel Shetty] and the maker had also picturised a song on the pair, but when he saw the final print, he decided to remove the song.


"Now that you've raised this question [whether to add the song or not], I've started thinking about it. But if I add the song, its placement would be in the first half, which already has its share of songs. I am puzzled..."


Harry, who's tasted success after a gap [his last directorial venture, KARZ, proved a burden for its distributors!], is enjoying every bit of the success. But not one to rest on past laurels, Harry has already started work on his next venture. "I've already had meetings with Ajay Devgan for the film. Beyond that, nothing is finalised," he tells me, "We've yet to discuss what we want to make next."


COLUMBIA FORAYS INTO NEW GENRE


The release of the family social, MAA SANTOSHI MAA, this week, marks Columbia TriStar's foray into a new genre of films. According to Vikramjit Roy of Columbia, the Hollywood studio has been exploring every genre of film ever since it stepped into distribution of Hindi films some time back. "We started off with the Hinglish BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, then tried a commercial film like 16 DECEMBER, followed by a children's film, J2M2. This time we are trying a family drama," he says.
According to him, it was the social theme of the film that got Columbia interested in it. "It holds a lot of promise for the family audiences, considering that a majority of women audiences are hooked on to soaps on television," he states.


RAMU SIDETRACKS STARS


Ramgopal Varma is trying out a different starategy to promote his new film DARNA MANA HAI. He's replaced the stars of the film with an owl in some hoardings, while a hand, candles and a lantern are the attraction in other hoardings.
After BHOOT succeeded, Ramu got the confidence to make songless films and now, if this starategy of using pets and candles works, Ramu won't publicise the faces of the stars in his forthcoming films for sure.