Hello-ji

Yes. I´m still alive. And no, I really haven´t watched Indian films for a while. So posting about it was kind of superfluous. There were mainly two reasons for my return to American and British television as main occupance whenever I have the time:

There are no Indian films in Viennese cinemas anymore. Yes, you get the odd Sholay-KKKG-Water Indian film retrospective but the one cinema who used to show Eros releases turned to Turkish movies apart from the standard western fare, and the tour operator who did those single shows of some films now stays in Germany only. When staying in India in 2008 I went and watched at least 2 films a week at the Satyam. And I found out that watching with a crowd increases the fun tenfold, which makes even mediocre films fun. 

And then right when I came back there were not any films I was willing to shell out $20+ on DVD. We not only do not have Indian films in cinemas here, our Indian grocery stores also only sell pirated DVDs. And I really not want those.

So I stopped and spent my time and money on different things. Doctor Who! Torchwood! Castle! Californication!

But recently I found I missed my Hindi, Tamil and Telugu heroes and heroines and I stumbled upon Wake Up, Sid! on the iTunes Music Store. I took it as a sign, rented it and thus my Bollywood dry spell finally ended last Sunday.

So, will I watch more? Probably. I have some films lying around at home that wait to be watched. Let´s see if I return to writing about them as well. In the meantime you can keep up with what´s going on in my life on my Tumblr or on Twitter.

The Blame Game

I´m sitting at the airport in Brussels waiting for my flight back to Chennai after veeery busy 5 days in Berlin (hence no update) but now looks like a good time to do a quick follow up on my last blog post.

Ever since I wrote my piece there have been press releases (from both sides), SRK sort of apologised to his German audience through a special video message and the German fans are ripping each other apart on account of who the truer fans are. Those who are pissed at SRK/his management for their share of the messing up but still love him as an actor/posterboy or those who already forgave and forgot everything, deeming SRK and "his people" the victims of the whole drama.















I am still standing by any word I wrote. Just in case you´re wondering. And I of course will go on watching any Indian film I can in cinemas or buy the (original) DVD´s of the ones I can´t and that look promising to me.

oops, they did it again or how to ruin a pretty well-doing market

SRK´s Temptation 2008 concerts in Germany have been canceled today. Three days before their scheduled dates. Back in August the German stop of the Bachchans Unforgettable Tour met the same fate. They informed their audience 4 days in advance about the adjourment sine die.

The big honchos in Mumbai seem to have got something wrong. Ever since the Johars and YashRaj started to make their profitable deals with REM and RTL2 the German market seemed to look like fat firang tourist in Chor Bazar to the Filmi Industry-walas that could easily be skinned for money.
Except, if you trick somebody and want to keep on milking him, don´t become too greedy. You can only screw us so far. To steal a line from K3G: Tum sirf entertainer ho, parameshwar nahin. For us Non-Desi Europeans you just produce films we like (sometimes very very much) with stars we like (and sometimes honestly love) but you can´t do whatever you like and not pay a price for it.

Take the DVD market for example.
Primary rule: If you want to sell films in Germany you have to dub them. Cinema in Germany has been German-dialogues-only ever since the first talkie in the 1920ies. Same goes for the Video and DVD market. Thankfully there are companies like REM who cater to a niche audience with high quality releases. Due to their cooperation with the RTL2 TV station they were able to produce top standard Bollywood DVD´s that sold fantasticly.

Enter greedy Bollywoodproducers. And swamp the market with C-grade movies, flop-films and bad quality production. That in itself would not be such a problem had they not tried to go the tourist-gouging routine. Even the King Khan has made some really really bad movies over the years. Sell them to the unsuspecting K3G, DDLJ or KHNH fan and you get somebody who will think twice if he will ever again spend 18,- to 24,- Euro on a BW DVD.
Mistake born out of greed #2: Quite a few of those crappy DVD´s had SRK (the only BW actor that really sells in Germany) on their cover. Even without him being in it. Instead customers got such shiny moments of Indian movie history like Hottestm@ail.com or Husn Bewafa.
Is it any wonder that sales of Bollywood DVD dropped like the stock market during the last weeks? Two years ago you had entire sections in DVD stores dedicated to Indian films. Now you can be lucky if you get a tiny part on the "B" shelf.

Then the TV ratings started to drop as well. Films were edited beyond recognition. And the big selling K3G-style extravaganzas were a thing of the past too. You just can´t expect films like D:2 or Krrish to work for an audience that is used to watch Hollywood quality action or SciFi films. Sorry. But, no.

Thank god the Berlinale 08 happened. SRK and OSO came, saw and conquered. The hard-core fans, still loyal and actually pretty active in promoting the thing they love, stroke up a frenzy. SRK made the evening news. And the German fans were led to believe that the slump that hit the Bollywood Trend in Germany was finally over. Especially since some of the Multiplex chains started to screen current films and both the Unforgettable and the Temptation Tours were announcing shows in Germany.

Bollywood Concerts and Germany do have a rather shaky past.
The local promoters like SensAsian are, lets be frank, crooks. Plain and simple. They talk, they announce, they sell tickets and they mess up, go into hiding, take the money with them and piss of the fans. Just look at SA´s track record. Apart from the very first "Dinner with SRK" in Offenbach in 2005 everything else was either canceled or had to be cut short.

And now we have the latest of their disasters and this time it is not simply Shilpa Shetty´s Miss Bollywood or the Bachchans (which both probably got canceled due to bad pre-sales). This time it really hits hard. This time it is SRK. I know of more than a few cases of Fans who literally had to scrimp and save to be able to afford a once-in-a-lifetime journey to one of the concerts. So this time it is personal. And that is bad news.

First they demand outrageous sums for - lets be honest - a tacky playback show and the fans pay it. And now the fans already sitting on their packed suitcases have to hope and pray that they get their 50,- to 250,- Euros back. And I am not even talking about the hundreds of fans that will surely loose money because their plane tickets or hotel reservations can´t be canceled.

(You want numbers? Lets take this very dear friend of mine. She shelled out 150,- for the ticket, 100,- for the airfare, the hotel for two nights would have cost her another 100,- add to that food, public transport and maybe some merchandise and you have at least 400,- . A sum that she was willing to spend on "her" SRK. She earns about 900,- each month. After deducting her fixed costs she has about 300,- for food, petrol etc. Do the maths!)

So, Yo! Greedy Bollywoodproducers and greedy Bollywoodstars!
If you want to save what is left of your start rebuilding some credibility in Germany to maybe have some kind of a future here: Don´t do deals with promoters you know have let you down in the past or distributors that do more damage than good. That can´t be too hard, can it?

There is that (very crass but nonetheless true) saying "don´t crap where you eat". And eating you seemed to do just fine in Germany for the last few years. But by crapping on our heads once too often I feel that you finally crossed the limit of our hospitality.


EDIT 16/10/08: Thanx to the great feedback to my rambling. To answer a few questions I was asked a few times. Yes, please copy the text if you want to (just give me credits for it) and no, I don´t have a German version of it, sorry. And since I am at a business convention for the next 3 days I won´t have the time to translate it either.

Back. And for now in Chennai.

The Filmi world has me back again. It has been very still here the past few months. Mainly due to the lack in films I wanted to watch. There just was not much that made me want to spend about 20USD for a DVD.

But now I finally made it to Chennai and today I finally made it to the cinema. YAY!

I started watching again on the flight to India (Jet Airways has a great selection of films from all over India). That way I finally got to see Taare Zameen Par. Which left me underwelmed. It is a good film but growing up in Austria we has tons of "TV movies of the week" that dealt with the same subject or a similar one. They were not executed so nice, I must admit. I guess I am just not the target audience for it. And maybe I was only feeling less then enthusiastic for it due to the big expectations I had. Well still, count me to the very surprised people if TZP makes the Oscar shortlist.

Anyway. I´m back. For good. Watched Rock On!! today at Satyam Cinemas. Plan to catch Drona and Kidnap on next Thursday and Sunday. (I dont have much time to do anything outside work unless it´s sunday or an office holiday)

PS: for those able to read German. I started a Blog about my adventures in India. It´s mainly for friends and family to stay in touch. But you´re very welcome take a look too (got some cool Auto-Riksha vids there) You´ll find it at http://babaindia.blogspot.com

Something is rotten in ...

the state of Bollywood at cinemas in Vienna. I don´t know how it happend but from being forced to decide between three different films on one day we just dropped to nothing. Zilch. Nada.

For more than a month now there has not been one single show of any Indian film here. Even in the past when we had fewer Bollywood here the summer was good. There are always a lot of summer cinema specials. Open-Air screenings. Whatever. And they always had a few films on. But this year it just stopped dead. Sarkar Raj was the last film that was on. Ever since that not-so-exciting-thingy there´s nothing. Zilch. Nada. But I repeat myself here.

And there is no explanation for it. Sigh. Well, I guess we just have to wait a little more. And make do with a single screening of Monsoon Wedding, MHN or whatever deadbeaten film they will show late August.

I want to see Sing is Kinng! Bleh! The Germans get it and we don´t. Not fair.

Anyway. As you might (or not) have noticed I am still in Vienna. I should be in Chennai for a month already, but my stay gets delayed and delayed and delayed. But I am still hopefull that the next few weeks will finally see me going. Hah. And then I wont have any trouble with cinemas not playing the kind of films I want to see.

In the meantime I make do with Mamma Mia! (Did I mention before that I was raised on ABBA? Plus, it has Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan singing. *Squee* And the devine Meryl Streep. Bless her.) And Dr.Horrible. And as you might have noticed from this posts title I am (re-)reading Hamlet. The commentary book I got yesterday is more then thrice the number of pages of the play.. Why am I reading it? Well. I love Shakespeare. I haven´t read it in ages. Its summer. I have a beautiful green shady terrace with very comfy chairs. And what´s more, I can´t go to Stratford-upon-Avon to watch Patrick Steward and David Tennant perform.

So there´s that.

How time flies

As I am writing this, I sit in the lobby of my hotel in Chennai, waiting for the transport that will take me to the airport to catch my flight home. It is a bit surreal. Outside there are almost 40 degree Celsius. In the lobby it is freezing cold and they play the Best of Kenny G CD. Just now the song is Winter Wonderland. Oh I love it here.

The trip was busy and stressy and fun. I did not manage to see much apart from the taxi rides and offices and hotelrooms. So my filme experiences mainly consisted of in-flight entertainment. That means I got to see Vel (with Surya and Asin) on the flight to India which I liked. And 4 (!) times parts of Welcome on my domestic flights with Kingfisher. Why of all the films in the world did it have to be Welcome? There is one single good scene in it and that is when Anil Kapoor makes his extortion call to Paresh Rawal who thinks it is a prank call. I love the way Nana Patekar cracks up laughing. Then I watched the Kolkata Knight Riders get destroyed by Mumbai on TV. Oh and I managed to buy the Dusavatharam Soundtrack and the Raijnikanth Biography. Had no chance to listen in on the soundtrack though. My Macbook Air does not have a CD drive..

Now for the really cool part. As of today it is confirmed. I get to come back to India. Very soon. In early July. And then I will stay for at least 3 months. So all you people I was not able to visit this time. I´ll be coming to hound you..

I managed to put some pics up on flickr. They are mainly shot from inside of our car. But in Delhi I even had 3 hours time for some sightseeing. Yay.

2 reasons

I have two reasons for being so quiet here ever since the PEIBBM. One is good, one is even better.
The good one is in fact not my fault. Blame Kaddele, Maria and Ezri. They hooked me on Doctor Who. ´Nuff said. *babyfangirlsqueee*

The better reason is so bilkul first class. I´ll be going to India. Soon. Very soon. I always wanted to. But there never were any concrete plans. And then four weeks ago a chance turned up that was too good to resist and now for starters I´ll be flying to India for 9 days in May and if that trip goes well, I might set up camp in India for a few months from late June. As you might imagine there is some hectic preparation work to be done.

But yes. I still watch movies. Just yesterday we went to the cinema and saw The Dream Team Krazzy4. I liked that it had (a mostly wasted, but I take what I can get) Rajat Kapoor, liked the 4 krazzy guys, Hrithik´s moves, and that so many of my favorite supporting actors made an appearance. But the rest was either a 1:1 copy or ranging from not very good to plainly bad. I don´t think it is a good sign that we thought the post-climax moral-of-story speeches were the funniest part of the movie. And imagine my suprise at hearing my dad´s fave song from the 60ies in Rajesh Roshan´s oh so "genuine" soundtrack. Here (song starts after about 20 sec).

And I watched U Me Aur Hum. And kinda liked it. You know first time director and all. But I liked it.

Two Naa three more things before I have to get back to work. We were written about in Tehelka. And Filmiholic did a terrific interview with Mani Ratnam. Read it. And there are of course tons of pics from the fantastic Bloggersmeeting in Munich on flickr. Here my collection and here the flickr group.

Edit: Oh my. In between all the Doctor Who and India job and WTF Krazzy4 moments. I totally forgot to mention our very clever project that was conceived at the Sunday brunch at Munich´s PEIBBM.







Its group blog listing all cinema screenings of Indian or Indian related film in the German speaking part of Europe. Setting it up, editing and updating would be reason number 3 for my unforgiveable silence here.

Have Macbook Air. Will Post.

Hi, sorry for the lack of updates. But there has been just too much going on in my private (yes I do have one) and work-related live.

So just a short update to tell you all is well.
We already do have quite an impressive line-up for the Bloggermeeting in Munich. So far we´re running at 35 registrations (mainly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Beth is so far again the lone "international" party. And she is having nightmares about being forced to speak German. So. You out there. Show some compassion. Join her.)

Then another important thing. If you´re located in Europe and are able to read German. Go and vote for the 5th Annual Central European Bollywood Awards. Just click here. Results will be announced on March 8th at the PEIBBM in Munich.

Oh and concerning the title of this entry. Its only to make Michael go green with envy ;-)

MiniKhan and I had a blast unpacking it yesterday evening.

Happy New Year!

What a night. What a party.














And since MK was feigning a hangover, I parked him in front of the TV to watch the Neujahrskonzert and did the cleanup decontamination restoration all by myself.


















But nonetheless, let me wish all of you a wonderful, happy 2008!

PS: My New Year´s resolution for 2008 is to blog more and especially write more reviews than during the last 6 months. And I´ll see that through. MiniKhan ki kasam.

Happy Holidays

In between our families extensive Christmas celebrations in Salzburg and Switzerland, here´s wishing you all Happy Holidays from MiniKhan, my family and me.



















PS: MK is addicted to Xmas cookies. Say goodbye to his six-pack.

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.

just off to get new material

I'm trying something here.

Just a short note:
- i am in Zürich for the weekend to visit family.
- i did not bring my macbook (big mistake, i know, but how was i supposed to know, that Akshay Shah of naachgaana.com would link to my Bhool Bhulaiya post, while i'm gone *g*)
- so i'm typing on my shiny new iPod Touch and that is kind of tricky. I have no idea how this turns out.

- on a filmi note... I did manage to get quite a few dvds today
And last but not least... The first thing i saw after leaving the plane today was an ad saying "Oerlikon is Bollywood" ?? I have no idea what that part of zurich has to do with BW. But then a few meters further it read "Oerlikon is Shanghai"... They are a weird but nice people here

got a problem. solved it. you live with it. bas.

I started to write a preview of Bhool Bhulayia. And then stopped. Kyu? Bear with me for another short ramble.
Just because I did not blog for the last weeks/month(s) does not mean I did not surf the net and read up on my daily dose of filmi news bits. One of my favorite sites doing that and a daily stop-over is PFC. I love reading their posts and comments, but some of the guys (certain special dear darlings excluded) posting/commenting there are way too intimidating for me. So apart from my not having the guts of posting comments there, it went even so far that I started to question my kind of postings here. But today when I started writing the afore-mentionend Bhool post, I stopped, thought about it and then came to the very healthy conclusion that I don´t care. And that I really shouldn´t.
This is my blog. I like it the way it is. You read it. If you like it, read more. If you think I´m just a white chick who should better zip it, your bad. If you think it´s too mainstreamy, same accounts. My, anyway not too small, self-esteem is back up. I ´ll continue to do my thing. My way. [/end ramble]

Restart. Even I can recognize a sign when I hear it

What does yesterdays "the Police" concert in Vienna have to do with the end of my blogging hiatus?

Ketan Anand. Stuttgart. And Ehsaan Noorani. An early phone interview this morning.... Kya? What is she talking about?

Ok, let me start at the beginning. I came home from Stuttgart in July and despite being super motivated by meeting all the great people I did there and having the time of my life, I just had to take a break from posting. I had a great summer. Workload at office was ok, Eros started screening their movies (Partner, My Father Gandhi, Heyy Babyy) at release-time in a Multiplex here, Birgit came home from India and there were rumours of a big Bollywood production shooting from September in Austria. But I just did not feel like blogging. So I decided that if things got even more relaxed I would start again..
Well the last 3 weeks have been hell, workwise and with so much happening here in Vienna, so I thought I might take a little more time off.
And then we went to the Police concert yesterday. You know the Sting, Steward Copeland, Synchronicity, Every Breath You Take - kind of Police. A concert I´ve been waiting to attend since 1983 (!) The guys came on stage. And I remembered an anecdote Ketan Anand told us in Stuttgart.
Sometime during the Eighties the Police were in Mumbai and staying at the Anand´s house on the beach in Juhu. The day the guys were supposed to leave, Steward Copeland (the drummer) decided that he just had to take a camel ride on the beach. To make a short story even shorter, an idea that sounded harmless (just like a LOT of ideas do when certain substances are involved in the idea-finding process) turned out to be just the opposite since the camel took off with him for hours and they almost missed their plane...
What ever. All of a sudden a Bollywood connection was even there (Especially since the guy standing in front of me at the concert was smoking weed LOL)
Then this morning I had a phone interview scheduled with Ehsaan of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for the German Bollywood magazine I sometimes write for and when I called instead of the usual ringing sound "don´t stand so close to me" by Police was playing. And as it turned out Ehsaan Noorani is a huge Police fan.
If this is no sign then what is, hai naa? I had a perfect reason to start blogging again.

So I´m back. This time for good. Workload is still hell, but maybe that is another perfect reason to write anyway.

why I´m late with the write-up..

I´m not lazy. Well I am, but thats not the reason why I had no time to write more about Stuttgart yet. Rita Rani, a filmmaker who was in Stuttgart with her shortfilm "Bombay Skies" just came to Vienna for 2 days with her parents and we were roaming the city doing heavy sightseeing and chatting and more chatting. But don´t dispair. The post is coming soon. Kasam se.

Holidays - sort of..

Tomorrow morning I´ll be heading to Stuttgart (that would be in Germany) for five days of Bollywood & Beyond i.e. the biggest Indian film festival in Germany. Its my first time there, I hope to meet tons of great people, indulge in heavy partying and overdose on Indian cinema in all its aspects.
Btw. I´ll take my Macbook and camera with me and try to update from there.

See ya´ll later.

For Your Consideration

Some of you might have noticed that in the link section on the right hand side of my blog a few weeks ago a new link showed up in the "sites with babasko input" section.
Sometime ago Ramesh from AOL India contacted me and offered me to write in a team with two more fun and great people, Biju and Aditja, to write for AOL India´s brand spanking new Bollywoodblog. Not that I have been as hard-working as those two guys yet (I promise to improve). But its been a fun ride so far. You should listen in to our weekly conference call..

So without much further ado. If you have the time pay us a visit. And no fear I´m vow to increase the post frequency here (and there) considerably now that my sisters wedding is over and I have the time to actually watch movies again.

main bhi Tagged hoon

t-hype thought she could lure me back into blogging by imposing the following tag on me. *sigh* in the light of #4 of the rules. I thought I give it a try. And apologize in advance to the 8 poor souls that I will have to tag in return.

The rules are as follows:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
4. If you fail to do this within eight hours, you will not reach Third Series or attain your most precious goals for at least two more lifetimes.

ek- one of my most favorite family stories: my grandmothers brother disappeared in Russia in WW2 the same minute his son was born thousands of miles away in Austria (there´s proof, the birth certificate and the telegram that came 3 days after my great-grand uncle was decleared MIA)

do- my nickname babasko often confuses people (waves at surya) I´m sorry it wasn´t conceived to mislead people about my gender. Its only a mingled version of my first and family name that first was used when there was not enough space for writing "Barbara Skoda" on my personal drawer at work about 10 years ago.

tin- I´m addicted to Wasabi Coated Green Peas. Love it that you never know if you´ll get a loaded or mild one.

char- I never knew Vienna had such fantastic sunsets until we moved into our current flat that is on the 8th floor. John Ford movies have nothing on us.

paanch- driving. I love driving. Best all alone and fast as in 160-180km/h or through mud and sand with hubby offroad.

chah- the older I get the more I miss my granddad who died when I was just 7 years old. We had the most fantastic conversations during long walks in the woods and I often wonder what we would talk about now if he was still here.

saat- I´m a super fast shopper if I´m in the right mood. I got my dress for my sisters wedding, and at least two other festive occations plus the appropriate accessories in 15 minutes. The salesclerk in the boutique did not know what hit her. And I probably won´t when I get the creditcard bill...

aath- The thing I miss most about home when I´m not there is the tap water. Vienna has fantastic mountain-spring quality tap water. Anybody seen the movie "Water" from 1985 with Michael Caine? (btw one of the funniest films in history). That is what comes out of the tap here - non gazeuse of course.

And now comes the hardest part of the assignment because most of you have already been tagged: Let´s see, I tag Birgit, Kaddele, Velu, Mariakäfer, Sheetal and since its late and I´m tired I risk the wrath of the tag and leave it at only 5 new victims.

Huge Backlog - Sigh.

Ok, I won´t bore you with what has been happening here the last weeks. Let´s just say it´s been mostly work and only veeery little play. But still the DVD´s kept mounting. D:2, Salaam-E-Ishq, Eklavya, Nishabd, Namaste London, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ldt. and a huge stack of older stuff from Sharmelee to Kauff to Sarfarosh and more. And then the sentencing on the TADA trial began and every morning now I just have to scan the web for any news on Sanjay. For those who don´t follow it. Wether Sanjay goes to jail for a minimum of 2 3/4 years or gets bail should be decided in the next two weeks.
Last Friday I was heading to Germany on a weekend-long markting meeting, not with out hope of having the chance to get some time to squeeze some Bollywood in between, which of course turned to dust..
But now I´m back. And since hubby is visiting his family in Switzerland, I´ve got the house and more important the remote control all for myself. So yay, I´m back

Business is busy :-(

Due to our school´s commitment at the AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention that starts on Saturday here in Vienna and me being in charge of our presentation at the exhibition and our company´s big honchos visiting, which will result in dinner meetings and heavy partying every night, I don´t think will be able to spend much time online until next Tuesday. Let alone have time to watch any movies.
Wish me luck :D Phir Milenge.