His original name was Baburao Krishnarao Mestry. He was born on 3rd Tune, 1890 at Kolhapur. He took education up to 4th-5th standard. He did not take any formal education of art. It was innate in him. He achieved so much in the film industry and the field of art. Baburao added an element of art to the movies. He was a well-known name in the Marathi film industry. He set new standards as art director, film settings, and theatre. He was called Cinema Kesari by Lokmanya Tilak. Baburao’s studio is still there in Kolhapur. The statues that he sculpted still stand in and around Kolhapur. He expired on 16th January, 1954. He was survived by his wife and eight children. His son Ravindra Mestry was also a good painter.
Author: Shabbir Chunawalla
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Film Directories
Screen World Annual Dictionary is one popular directory of the people associated with film industry. It is produced by Rajendra Ojha since the 1980s. It also provides the details of the TV industry and documentary makers. Previously, it was called Film Pocket Dictionary.That was when it was launched in the 1970s. To begin with, the data was collected by hunting down the contacts. Data collection is now more systematic. People volunteer the information, and share their details. The first edition of the directory had only 25 pages. The current edition has 900 plus pages, and lists 25000 contacts. It costs Rs.1500. The phone numbers are verified to ensure that the numbers are not misused, the numbers of the secretarial-managerial staff are mentioned. The distribution too is through home delivery on order. Another competing directory is called Film India. It is produced by Deepak Malhotra. It was launched in 1984 by his father Ramesh Malhotra. Deepak took the reigns in 2010. His wife collaborates with him in this venture. When started, it was a 60-page directory. Today, it has two versions — the smaller one with 500 pages and the bigger one with 800 pages. It also has the information on the regional film industry.
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100-Crore Mark of Business for Hindi Movies
The benchmark of success in Hindi film industry now stands at a business of Rs 100 crore, post-entertainment tax. The entertainment tax is as high as 30 per cent. The money made from overseas and other streams such as satellite rights, music right etc is over and above this. It is a sign of growing industry. It also indicates the pan-India appeal of the film as such business results from healthy collection not only in the metros but fro tier-2 and tier-3 towns. The driving force is of course the content, but no doubt the investment made into making better product too counts. The multiplicity of screens has also pushed up business. The time of release and the simultaneous release across the market do count. The theatrical release accounts for 50 per cent of the revenue. The rest of the streams contribute the remaining revenue. Some producers sell the film outright to the studios, e. g. Bodyguard wassold to Reliance for Rs 60 crore while it collected Rs 148 crore later. Similarly Don2 had been sold to Reliance. Dabangg was sold to Ashtavinayak. Some producers are distributors too e.g. Agneepath by Karan Johar. Here the producer makes most of the money.
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Unhate Campaigne, 2011
This campaign was launched by United Colors Benetton. It consists of the doctored pictures of world leaders such as the US president Barrack Obama, Chinese persident Hu Jintao, the the French president Nicholas Sarkozy, Germany chancellor Angela Merkel caught in a liplock. One of the ads in the series showed Pope Benedict XVI kissing Ahmed-al-Tayeb, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar mosque in Cairo.It was later withdrawn. The idea was to spread the message of love. Previously benetton had an ad of a nun kissing a priest. It blends well with the brand imagery of being radical and bold.
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Women in Film Editing
Editing was once considered a male bastion. Today women have become some of the finest editors in Hindi film industry. The late Renu Saluja was an editor par excellence. Namrata Rao has edited Oye Lucky ! Lucky Oye ! , Love Sex and Dhokha, Ishqiya, and Band Baaja Baraat.According to Namrata, editors are like mothers who nurture and shape a film. A good editor has to understand the director’s ambition and vision. Aarti Bajaj edited Rockstar.She has worked on films like Black Friday, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., Jab We Met. She is a former wife of Anurag Kashyap. An editor has to get uner the skin of the characters. Only then the editor can find his/her space in each scene without unnecessarily cutting it.Deepa Bhatia edited Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma, Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara.Hemanti Sarkar learnt editing at FTII. She edited Peepli Live which had more the 30-hours of footage.
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India’s News Channels
India’s news channels earlier were influenced by open-minded persons such as Dr Pranoy Roy in English and S P Singh (Aaj Tak) in Hindi. Pranoy gave a line-up of stars who are at the centre-stage of news these days — Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Vikram Chandra and Arnab Goswamy. They were initiated when they were in their twenties, and are in the public domain for the last 20 years. After S P Singh’s death, his tradition in Hindi was continued by Uday Shankar ( Aaj Tak and Star News ). Shahi Zaman, Dibang, Naghma and the rest have kept the Hindi channels respectable. Rajat Sharma’s India TV brought true populism to Hindi news.
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A Muse to Inspire
Creative persons need inspiration to create. Men have always depended on women for the push. Prabhuddha Dasgupta, a photographer calls this feminine energy responsible for his creativity. However, he agrees that a muse need not be a specific person. A muse is the mythical figure credited for being not only an author’s inspiration, but also the genius behind his work. Myth is thus an ephemeral idea. Some find the idea of a muse uncomfortable. A creative person must work regardless of inspiration. Surgeons do complicated surgeries with no muse to inspire, and mothers nurture babies without relying on a muse. The idea of a muse can be used as a metaphor. Muses remind us how capricious the inspiration is , just like the goddesses who are free-spirited and elusive. A poet can scratch a pen endlessly across the page, and still there is no output.Anything can trigger off a poem, say a place, a person, a mood or a relationship but its verbalisation requires a goddess. Any poet would wish that she visits him more often.
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Badge Engineering
In Indian auto sector, badge engineering or cross badge engineering is gaining ground. This is on account of increased development costs, a need to break even faster and spread the costs over a large number of products.Badge engineering means mechanically it is the same car /two-wheeler, with minor cosmetic changes and a new badge. It is differen from platform sharing where components are shared and the interiors/ exteriors are different. Honda Activa and Honda Dio are examples of badge engineering. Volkswagon Vento and Skoda Rapid are badge engineered cars.
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Susie Wolff, the Fastest Woman in the World
Susie Wolff is the first woman driver in Formula One for 20 years. Someone does feel like asking her, ‘Wow, can you actually drive?’ She feels like saying with a smile, ‘ Why do you think I’am here?’ According to her,whether you are a man or woman, when you come on the track, what matters is the performance. Yes, she recognises that her USP is being in motor sports despite being a woman. She is a 32 years old Scot. She participated in DTM for 20 years. She is the first to compete at the Race of Champions. She tested for Williams at Silverstone last season, and maybe she would be the first to drive at a GP. As the official test driver of a team for the next season, she will be on F1 regular. However, whether she will be in the full-fledged race seat is yet to be seen. Maybe an opportunity comes for her if she knocks on enough doors. She is talented and she has the speed. Embarrassingly, she has faced the questions like how her bust could take the bounce due to the bumps on the track.She drove a pink car, and people came to see the pink car. She clearly had no role models to follow, but she herself aspires to be a role model for others. As in any other profession, women have to work harder to prove themselves. Her husband Toto Wolff is an executive director in the Mercedes team and is on the Williams Board. That attracts a charge of nepotism, but then her husband recuses himself when she is a matter of discussion. As he is an investor and she a sports person, both the roles are different. There is no conflict of interest.
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Sant Tukaram
A movie on Sant Tukaram was made 78 years ago. In 1936, V. Shantaram and Prabhat Film Company had produced the movie. Prabhat was managed by V. Damle and S. Fattelal. Vishnupant Pagnis played the role of Tukaram. The film was released at the Central Cinema in Mumbai. It is preserved at the National Film Archives. After all these years, a new movie on Sant Tukaram was released in 2012. It was directed by Chandrakant Kulkarni, and actor Jeetendra Joshi played Tukaram. It was produced by Sanjay Chhabaria.The script was written by Ajit Dalvi and Prashant Dalvi.
The period of Tukaram is between 1608 and 1650. Tukaram is a prominent saint of the Varkari sampradaya and poet of the bhakti movement. He belonged to the Vani or grocer caste. His first wife died. He married second time. Her name is Jija bai or avali. He had three sons — Santu or Mahadev, Vithiba and Narayan. Tukaram is the first modern poet of Marathi. He denied caste hierarchy. He was against rituals. The movie focused on Tukaram, the man and his journey towards sainthood. The spirit of Tuka lives on through his poetry. Tukaram’s life was short — 42 years. He created a treasure trove of 4500 abhangs.