Ready for release films pile up in Bollywood...

alt="image" />By Priyanka Khanna, IANS

New Delhi, (IANS) While the Indian box-office seems game for experimentation with movies
in myriad hues making money, it is still unable to accommodate the growing pile of

ready-to-release films.

While big banner products like "Mangal Pandey" and "No Entry" had the luxury of

handpicking their release dates, a slew of pictures of not-so-hot stars and by lesser-known

filmmakers are languishing in the cans.

"Taj Mahal", a period film on the Mughal monument, tops the list in this category. The

film by producer-director Akbar Khan is yet to finalise a release date.

Even the promos of the film starring Zulfikar, Sonya Jehan, Manisha Koirala, Kabir Bedi,

Pooja Batra, Arbaaz Khan, Arbaaz Ali and Kim Sharma have run out of steam on television and

were taken off.

Director Tanuja Chandra's "Filmstar" has been ready for release from the beginning of the

year, but is yet to make it to the silver screen. Makarand Deshpande's "Hanan" is also

awaiting release for a year now. Both films are instead destined for television

premiers.

The decision of the film's producers to show "Filmstar," starring Mahima Chaudhary,

Priyanshu Chatterjee, Vasundhara Das and Aryan Vaid, on the small screen before its matinee

release has not found favour with Tanuja.

"It is a bit upsetting considering that I had been looking forward to the release of the

film for all this time. It is sad that a director puts in so much of his creative effort

into a project only to realise later that it will not have the expected release," she

said.

The film is a co-production between Sahara One Motion Pictures and Vishesh
Films. Being a television company as well, Sahara may well have started a new trend with its

decision to premiere the movie on its Sahara One channel after it failed to find theatrical

buyers.

The film, however, will continue to await its turn at the turnstiles.

Even a Salman Khan-starrer - "Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar" - is not finding a firm date

for release. The film by director K.S. Adhiyaman is being promoted heavily, but there is no

word on whether it will be released in August or September. Shilpa Shetty is Salman's

co-star in the film.

Ditto for Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor-starrer "Milenge Milenge". The film was

supposed to be Kareena's next after "Bewafa" but producer Boney Kapoor is undecided on a

release date.

Boney has lost a lot of money lately and is perhaps waiting for a date with no

competition to release the comic love fable by director Satish Kaushik.

On the other hand, next week will witness the release of Akshay Kumar, Karishma Kapoor

and Amisha Patel-starrer "Mere Jeevan Saathi" by Suneel Darshan.

His next film "Barsaat," starring Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra and Bipasha Basu, is slated

for an Aug 19 release.

The most-awaited film for August will be "Mangal Pandey", which will be released Aug 12

to coincide with India's Independence Day Aug 15. Great expectations are hinging on the

mega-budget film by producer Bobby Bedi and directed by Ketan Mehta.

This will be Aamir Khan's first release in 2005 and is expectedly high on the list of

"must-watch films" of moviegoers. The film has music by A.R. Rahman. Though the music is yet

to catch on, Rahman's music is known to grow on listeners.

The film stars the reigning queen of the marquees Rani Mukerji and features
Amisha Patel as the love interest of a British officer. Amisha had replaced
Aishwarya Rai in the film.

The success of the film will decide whether Bollywood continues its golden run at the

box-office into the month of August.

The box-office performance of "Mangal Pandey" will also decide the fate of the pile of

films waiting for release as a flop at this stage will bring business to a grinding halt and

send distributors into a shell.

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Business in Bollywood is booming and so is creativity. A fast-track action thriller, a

subtly satirical comic caper, a raunchy sex-comedy, a celluloid adaptation of a classic and

a handful of small budget offbeat fables have all made it big at the turnstiles, making it

impossible to predict emerging trends.

Making matters more complicated were the three dramatically different film debuts this

week by new kids on the block - Shoojit Sircar, Kabeer Kaushik and Ishan Tridevi.

While Shoojit enjoyed a more visible debut for his love story "Yahaan" set in the

terror-infested state of Jammu and Kashmir and Ishan's "7 1/2 Phere" got noticed easily for

its peppy title and star cast, it is Kabeer's "Sehar" that has critics sitting up and taking

note.

Packaged as a political thriller, "Sehar" stands out for its individuality.
Though the filmmaker is trying to sell it as mainstream film, it is as offbeat as can be and

therein lies its beauty.

Starring Arshad Warsi, Pankaj Kapoor, Mahima Chowdhary, Sushant Singh, Suhasini Mulay and

Rajendra Gupta, the film based on the nexus between politics and crime in north India is a

remarkable debut.

"Yahaan," starring Jimmy Shergil opposite newcomer Manissha, is a love story set against

the backdrop of the tragically beautiful Kashmir Valley. It seems set to be an average

grosser at the box-office given the fact that there has been a dearth of love stories in

Bollywood.