Why can’t there be more such ‘lucky’ happenings?
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I happened to come across a news report 3 days ago on IndiaFM/Bollywood Hungama that Priyan is all set to make a movie on AIDS awareness with Akshay Kumar and Mohanlal. What was even more surprising is that the budget is only Rs.1 crore (link ) . So it is obvious that Akshay and Mohanlal are definitely acting for free due to the nature of the project. That both of them are good friends of Priyan also helps in a big way.
While this development is certainly praiseworthy I started thinking that it certainly makes it easy for directors/producers who are in close proximity with some stars to utilize their services to make genuine middle of the road movies, projects which would otherwise probably not reach out to the masses so easily. But what about the smaller movie makers or debutant directors & producers? Would they be able to get the benefit of such a possibility happening to them?
Of course there are instances of even people like Amitabh Bachchan doing a Bhojpuri movie- Ganga purely because it was produced by his long standing make-up man, Deepak Sawant. But I’m not really referring to these incidents. I’m also not referring to 31 stars doing the song in OSO for free or the latest- Kareena, Deepika and Priyanka featuring in a song for free in Billu. I’m talking about instances where a star/popular actor genuinely went out of his way to do a movie for someone based on the subject and obviously without keeping his remuneration in mind.
I know for a fact that Mohanlal is one such actor. He has a history of doing a lot of projects purely because the film maker or someone connected with the movie would have been able to convince him with the subject potential. Why go deep into the past, I can name recent instances of at least 3 movies which he did as recently as in 2008 without keeoing his remuneration in mind and because he liked the movie’s subject. Sample this – Lal has recently completed shooting for a Malayalam movie called Bhagawan in a flat 17 hours!!! Yes I know it sounds too good to believe. And no this was not a couple of scenes that he shot, rather he plays the protagonist. The movie is a thriller directed by Prashanth Mambuli & is all about an incident in a hospital that happens between 9 A.M & 11 A.M in a single morning. (Check out the link- http://sify.com/movies/malayalam/fullstory.php?id=14820258&cid=2362 ).The movie is still awaiting its release (did not release on Jan 26th as was originally intended).
Last year among the various releases that Mohanlal had 2 of them need to be singled out here. The first was Mizhikal Sakshi, a small movie directed by Ashok R.Nath and revolving around a mute Muslim mother’s (Sukumari) struggle after her son ( Mohanlal) is falsely accused of bombing a train. It was a movie which belonged to Sukumari all the way but still Mohanlal had the conviction to do it. The other movie is Pakalnakshatrangal, directed by Rajeev Nath and story by Anoop Menon. The movie revolves around the life of Siddharthan a popular filmmaker who falls from a building and dies. The story is unveiled through his son, played by Anoop Menon. It was Anoop Menon here who did the job of convincing Mohanlal for the role. Apparently Mohanalal and Suresh Gopi (playing a scientist) completed their shooting in around 10 days flat for the movie.
Well I’m sure we can come up with more such instances similar to the one’s I have written about here. I would like to hear from you all about the one’s known to you. I know that there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers and story writers in PFC and this is just an attempt to tell you all (including me) that we can get “lucky” too 
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
not similar case but I heard Salman did “Phir Milenge” without any fee as
1)Revathi is his long time friend.
2)Subject of film, AIDS.
Don’t know if it’s true or even related. But just came into mind.
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32- Yes I think the example given by you is valid & related.Salman knows Revathi from the time they did “Love”.
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i think the movie jaane bhi do yaaro was done on a shoe-string budget and assembly-cast (mostly FTII gang) with a lot of talent & money being pooled in by all concerned. in fact, so much was the contribution of sudhir mishra & vidhu vinod chopra, that the two protagonists in the movie are named sudhir & vinod.
the entire cast & crew did it for one another, rather than for money.
there are many instances in films of ray, where soumitra chatterjee would not even discuss money with him. uttam kumar desired all his life to get that privilege, but managed only two movies with the maestro – nayak & kapurush – o – mahapurush
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Mammootty did that extended cameo in Kadha Parayumbol for free.
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I am sure there are multiple instances like that – heard kamal acting in one movie for one of his long time assistants – he called it “anbu thollai” ( irritations that come with love/loyalty ) – i think it was “panchathantiram” – but as they say – there is nothing like a free lunch…
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Jha- Well your example is correct but that happened ages ago.I’m more concerned with what is happening these days.
Arjun- Yes you are right.Mammooka was quite happy to read the story written by Srinivasan & since it was produced by Srinivasan and Mukesh, he was more than happy to do it.
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Padhu- Panchatantiram was directed by K.S.Ravikumar & I dont think its the right example under this category.
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sorry.. this post is out of context
hey sethu,
always wanted to let u know that pakalnakshatrangal is the best movie ive seen in the last 2 years, but most mallus rate thirakkatha better than the former one.
there are lots of under currents in the movie and a stellar performance by lal which only he can do.
and guess wot im looking for some great things from anoop menon and he’s an intellect as ive seen his interviews.
w’d like to know ur comments on the movie if u have seen it..
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