Newton, Haseena Parkar, Simran, Daddy, Sameer, Naam Shabana, Noor and so on. The trend seems to be catching up over the last few years. Naming films after lead characters and then trying to justify it somewhere in the film shows a bankruptcy of ideas. Was Newton from this film a great man, a hero? Or Noor for that matter!

The main thing is what these titles say about the film: which is nothing, zilch. You don’t even want to give a second look to the promo. If you don’t have the imagination to name your film appropriately, the content of the rest of your film is highly suspect.  This has been proven by all such films that are conveniently titled but which fail to say anything substantial about the subject.

Also, when it comes to a films like Daddy or Haseena Parkar, it amounts to glorifying murderers and criminals and how would the makers expect them to be picked up by the viewer! Such films don’t make commercial sense either since there is no satellite or overseas market for them which makes for a further loss.

Cinema greats such as  Raj Kapoor (Bobby) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Anand, Guddi) did base the title of an odd film on the name of the films’ protagonist but, then, people knew there were stalwarts behind these films and the audience had faith in the filmmakers.

Also, in those days, music played an important part in making a movie successful. And in the case of all three films mentioned above, the music was a super hit much before the films even arrived in theatres. Nowadays, films have nothing to show in the name of music, let alone a decent melody worth humming. Once in a while, one of these films may make it to the National Award where there is no real competition. A National Award does not translate to box office collections and never did.

Film titles are registered with the producers  association. And, for every title registered, there is a waiting list in case the producer in whose name the title is registered fails to use the title in a stipulated timeframe. You also were not allowed to use the titles of films that were already made.

Certain enterprising producers devised new ways to get around this problem. One producer made Ramgadh Ke Sholay (Ramgadh was a fictional village near Bengaluru). Once when Pahlaj Nihalani could not get the title Ilzaam, he added the word Mera to the title (making it Mera Ilzaam) in such small font that it could hardly be seen on posters or screen but, technically, he had abided by the rules and done the needful.  There were many such examples  of how film industry folks skirted around restrictions and how these very restrictions became a lucrative side business for the members of the Title Committee.

@ The Box Office

There is no happy news for either the exhibitors or the trade in general so far. The poor run of films continues and, releasing new films in this dull period only amounts to adding  to woes.

The week saw the release of four films in Simran, Lucknow Central, Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi and BA Pass 2. While there were no hopes from Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi and BA Pass 2 from the get go, whatever little was expected was from Simran while Lucknow Central had lost its novelty value to Qaidi Band, a recent film based on a similar theme.

Lucknow Central is a story about jail inmates who form a music band. The film needed a strong musical score where it was found lacking.  Also, for the drab film that it is, the length of almost two-and-a-half hours made it unbearable. And that too with no presentable face on the screen except for Diana Penty.

Simran, on the other hand, held some promise especially keeping in mind the strong fan following its lead actor  Kangana Ranaut now commands thanks to the brave stand she has taken against Bollywood’s high and mighty. Hansal Mehta, the director, who usually makes films based on real life events, tried fiction this time and ended up choosing a story about a negative protagonist. Kangana’s character in the film seems to be lacking in logic and instead showcases a woman who can be nasty and who revolts against everybody for no obvious reason.

The collection for last week’s releases, Poster Boys and Daddy remained  hopelessly low as they failed to bring in footfalls.

*Lucknow Central had a poor opening of about Rs 1.8 crore on its opening day. The film showed a negligible rise on Saturday and Sunday to end its opening weekend with a total of Rs  7.25 crore. The film is expected to put together over Rs 11 crore or its opening week which is not encouraging.

*Simran had an average opening day of Rs 2.5 crore, showed a decent rise on Saturday but remained stagnant on Sunday to take its opening weekend total to Rs 9.3 crore. The film may cross Rs 13 crore for its first weekend.

*BA Pass 2 sinks without a trace. Mostly, no audience, no show status.

*Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi, which has been in the making since 2014, has proven to be a damp squib. The film was released sans due promotion and the result is the utter waste of two very talented actors, Rishi Kapoor and PareshRawal. The opening day collections were very poor: Rs 25 lakh for the opening day. It will end its opening weekend with about Rs 7.0 crore.

*Poster Boys, a remake of the Marathi film, Poshter Boyz, fails to match up to the original. Despite the Deol brothers in the cast, the film remains below par even in Deol strongholds of  Delhi and Punjab. Having opened to empty theatres, the film could barely manage Rs 10.75 crore in its first week.

*Daddy, another Don biopic on the life of ArunGawli, fails. Films on the underworld, even on Mumbai dons, don’t work and Daddy joins that list. The film collected Rs 6.4 crore in its first week.

*Badshaho adds 10.5 crore in its second week to take its two week tally to 64.9 crore. The film needs to do business of about Rs 100 crore to recover its expenses .

*Shubh Mangal Savdhaan has done well in its second week by adding Rs 10.4 crore and taking its two week total to Rs 32.7 crore.

*Bareilly Ki Barfi adds Rs 1.35 crore in its fourth week to take its four week tally to Rs 33.25 crore.

*Toilet  Ek Prem  Katha collects Rs 50 lakh in its fifth week taking its total business to Rs 128.9 crore. This the only genuine Hit Bollywood has seen in the last few months.