I tried to fight it. I swear. OSO.

The Johnny Gaddaar DVD is still on its way from Nehaflix to me. A No Smoking screening is nowhere in sight. So what remains to be done by the discerning Hindi cinema fan? Yes. Right.

Dive head first into the OSO pre-release hype. Yeehaaw!










The way it looks now Vienna will be the only city in the german-speaking parts of the world that will have a cinema release of Om Shanti Om along with the rest of saari duniya. And this suits me mighty fine, would I be if I did not take up the opportunity to go for a first day first (and second, yes, i already booked tickets for back to back shows) show.

As I mentioned before we here are in the lucky position to have a distribution deal between Eros Entertainment and the local UCI Multiplex. So far we got Partner, Gandhi My Father, Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulayia out of it. Not that impressive for you? Well it might become so when I tell you that this is an increase in regular cinemas screenings of Bollywood movies by 400%.

But now back to hysterical filmifan-part. And why of all films am I excited about OSO? Oh c´mon. Masala. Plain good ´ole Masala, baby.









Has anyone seen the dialog promos? 1, 2 and 3 ? How can I not be hyped by the prospect of seeing Rishi Kapoor and Subash Ghai fighting over who will give a filmfare award to a bad actor with a too-good-to-be-true sixpack?
Or Deeptika doing a song a la Dhal Gaya Din. Or SRK doing all his SRK-things. And then there is Deewangi of course. And. And. And. Sigh.










I really loved Main Hoon Na. Perfect popcorn cinema. And I have really really high hopes that Farah will pull this one off too. Storywise, visually, performanceswise.

What do I believe to know about it yet? Well, its a reincarnation love story. Om Prakash (patheticly bad wannabe hero but only junior artist so far) falls in love with Shantipriya (a Hema Malini like superstar) Lekin problem hai. Evil mustached other guy with evil intentions hai. And so the lovely couple dies before their love story can bloom. *insert frantic NAHIIIIIN here* The story cannot end there. So we fast foreward to now, as in right now, as both were reborn under slightly different premises and now have to find each other, solve all the riddles and hopefully live happily ever after.










Pre-sale for the 2 shows on the 9th has already started last weekend. And the tickets sell like hot-cakes. We have some OSO refugees from Germany and Switzerland for the weekend, so I am preparing for a very fun, very colorful, very cool weekend.










PS: Bollywood sucks at merchandising. Why did nobody come up with the idea of producing small OSO snow-globes? Oh you could have made a fortune.

another teaser and short away notice

I´ll be flying to Berlin in about 2 hours. For a meeting and our annual Alumni Convention (This year no stage action from me there. Do count your blessings)

But to keep this post Bollywood-related.. here a pic that might give you a hint at what MiniKhan will have to do when he finally comes for his scheduled visit...















Dear friend and SRK fanatic Gabi made it. It is perfect. Unbelievably perfect. He will be too cool to be true in it.

Now that is where he got the idea from

A bit over a week ago at a classified meeting concerning the next IBBM, this little guy showed up for a short impromptu visit.














Now we finally know whom the big Khan got the idea for his six-pack from. It seems he just tried to look more like his doll :-D

I predict a lot of annoyed neighbours in the future

Birgit has been predicting it for months. And Sony seems to have listened. On October 19th they will release SingStar Bollywood for the PlayStation2 in the U.K. (AmazonUK lists two versions. Once with two microphones and once only the game)
















The rumored songlist is:

Aashiqui - Nazar Ke Samne
Aksar - Jhalak Dikhla Ja
Chalte Chalte - Chalte Chalte
Chalte Chalte - Suno Na Suno Na
Chameli - Sajna Ve Sajna
Dil Chahta Hai - Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe
Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin - Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin
Don: The Chase Begins Again - Ye Mera Dil
Don: The Chase Begins Again - Khaike Paan Banaraswala
Dus - Dus Bahane Karlke Le Gaya Dil
Guru - Barso Re
Guru - Tere Bina
Ishq Hai Tumse - O Soniya
Kaal - Tauba Tauba
Kaal - Kaal Dhamaal
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - Where's The Party Tonite
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - Mitwa
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - Bole Chudiyan
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - Suraj Hua Maddham
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - Say Shava Shava
Kal Ho Na Ho - Maahi Ve
Kal Ho Na Ho - It's The Time To Disco
Kal Ho Na Ho - Pretty Woman
Khakee - Dil Dooba
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - Koi Mil Gaya
Kya Love Story Hai - It's Rocking
Main Hoon Na - Main Hoon Na
Rang De Basanti - Rang De Basanti
Salaam-E-Ishq - Salaam-E-Ishq


Oh, I just got to get it. My poor neighbours. Teehee.

EDIT: One thing that came up when I mentioned it to Ehsaan.. Will Sony be paying royalties? Or are we getting into a sort of eye-for-an-eye situation here? Something like (use deep voice of any well-fed American oil-company CEO to read *ggg*) "Them Indian filmindustry guys use our ideas without asking and even worse paying up. Lets show ´m. Why don´t we do a Karaoke Game and use their songs without askin´. You don´t mess with us, hon´!"