Balaji Motion Pictures splurging Rs 150 crore on six releases for 2013
Ekta Kapoor’s films Once
Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2, Ragini MMS 2,Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi, Shootout at Wadala, Ek Thi
Daayan, Lootera will
release in 2013
Not content with
being queen of the idiot box, Ekta Kapoor has decided to take
on Bollywood in a big way. Her Balaji Motion Pictures’ strategy had hitherto
been to keep budgets under control and thus gain return on investments superior
to big budget films. Not anymore it would seem. With millions of rupees being so much chump change
in Kapoor’s cavernous rear pockets, Balaji is splashing out Rupees 150 crore
for their six 2013 releases.
Tanuj Garg, CEO, Balaji Motion
Pictures, who is very close to Kapoor, said, “We have put together a strong
line-up with a lot of variety. The significant ramp-up in our slate
demonstrates the seriousness and passion with which we are growing the movie
business. We believe that an equal focus on co-productions and acquired
properties is not only a financially prudent approach for us but should also
accelerate our growth momentum. We’re pleased to be the only entity with market
dominance in television and films alike.”
Balaji’s first two releases of 2013 will take on the mighty Indian Premier
League (IPL), the only competition where an Indian team will always win. April
18 sees the release of supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan, starring
Emraan Hashmi, Huma Qureshi, Kalki Koechlin and Konkona Sen Sharma, co-produced
by Vishal Bhardwaj and directed by newcomer Kannan Iyer. On May 1, it’s the
turn of well-known plagiarist Sanjay Gupta’s , the prequel to Shootout at Lokhandwala, starring Anil
Kapoor, John Abraham, Kangna Ranaut, Tusshar, Manoj Bajpayee Sonu Sood and
Ronit Roy.
Releasing on June 7 is yet another Delhi-set comedy Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi, a title bound
to baffle non-NCR types and open to obscenely creative interpretation. A
co-production with Bejoy Nambiar, it marks the directorial debut of adman Aman
Sachdeva and launches Siddharth Gupta and former Miss India Simran Kaur. Enough
is enough. Can Bollywood now please leave Delhi alone and victimise another
city now, say, Faizabad? Vikramaditya Motwane’s love story Lootera, starring Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, releases July 5 and will test
whether the director has it in him to make a commercial film. It’s a
co-production with Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Vikas Bahl of Phantom Films.
Milan Luthria’s Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2 (earlier called Once Upon a Time
Again), starring Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan, Sonakshi Sinha and Sonali Bendre is
Balaji’s standard-bearer for the year and it releases August 8. And finally,
Bhushan Patel’s Ragini MMS 2, starring
pornstar-turned-Sati Savitri Sunny Leone opens on October
11, hoping to attract the sleaze demographic to theatres.
