🎩

tum hamesha khidki se kyun jaata hai, khidki se pehle darwaza kyun nahi try karta kabhi

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

Name a movie which NOBODY remembers except you.

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

Never thought I would see Simran in a film produced by Kamal Haasan

[वरुण 🇮🇳 @varungrover]

We are permanently living in JAANE BHI DO YAARO.

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

@gogokaghagraa Uday Chopra on the right?

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

an expert in getting myself upset for nothing

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

@EducatedMoron Or even Mirch Masala for slot 2. Literally the finest achievement in 80s Bollywood.

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

@EducatedMoron Main Hoon Na and Virumaandi

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

@SukanyaVerma @arrahman Thendrale is the best thing to listen to before you sleep

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

@Nainonmeinbadra we failed om puri but there is a chance for redemption now

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

My Name is Khan

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

If we lose our bee population, the Earth basically collapses. They are responsible for pollinating about 1/3 of the food we eat. They are far more important to humans than any AI tool or data center. Save the bees NOW.

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

off campus film hota toh dekh lete

[raga-learns-to-rock @pnamblat]

Films like this don’t get second chances. They live or die this weekend..

Show up. Take someone older. Take someone younger. Some stories need a full theatre ;not “Over the Top “ on your living room

#MainVapaasAaunga

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

been years since i used it to describe someone

[gaurvi @goobiecake]

bhondu is such a round yet crispy word. bhonduness. bhondu

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

hoping people don't start acting like the original Cocktail was a great film or something

nahi saha jayega

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

The choice of retro songs in Titan - Made in India 👌🏻

A theek thaak show. Anything without profanity, violence & nudity is a relief.

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

football twitter during fifa wc >>>>

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

Main Vapas Aaunga. On point 😊

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

Happy Birthday. Thank you for everything. Never stop making films.

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

Happy Birthday Imtiaz Ali. Come back with your magic soon. Movies miss you.

[🎩 @iFunkaar]

Ash intro scene in Dhoom 2 still makes me 🤮. What was that dialogue delivery man!

[jd @jdayz__]

World Cup is basically my best Africans vs your best Africans

[Mayank Shekhar मयंक शेखर @mayankw14]

“There is even a poster & other material lying around somewhere in my computer/hard-disk,” Shah Rukh Khan told me during an interview once (around 2006) — about how, at one point, he was actively scouting for moneybags for Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, so he could star in it.

Only, the funding was hard to find. After a failed meeting w/ producer Ratan Jain (Venus), SRK told Gowariker to remember all these people, who had no faith in him —once he made it big.

Jain promptly called me after this SRK interview was published. I asked him to sort it out with the star, instead.

To be fair to Jain & others, Gowariker — co-actor of SRK (from Circus, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Chamatkar), & Aamir Khan (from Ketan Mehta’s Holi) — had directed two films before Lagaan.

Neither had particularly worked (in a commercial sense).

Both were heavily inspired by Hollywood productions — Aamir starrer Baazi (1995), from Die Hard; & Pehla Nasha (1993), kinda lifted from Brian de Palma’s Body Double.

Also, rural settings had fallen off Bollywood’s map. Along with a period film (expensive, by their very nature), even a movie on sport, according to Aamir, was a no-go.

He had himself starred in a cricket movie, Awwal Number (1990), directed by Dev Anand, that was a disaster, alright.

But it has since been championed by connoisseurs of deliciously trashy Hindi pictures.  No mean feat!

Against the advice of veterans like Javed Akhtar, once Aamir came onboard Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) as a debuting producer — sufficiently mitigating business risk — finance in the form of Jhamu Sugandh must’ve naturally followed.

Late Sugandh had been a prolific film distributor, until he backed some seminal films as presenter/producer, before Lagaan— Bombay, Rangeela, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Daud, Chachi 420, Earth, Astitva.

The filmmaking behind Lagaan, unusual for the time — sync sound for a massive outdoor production, AD system, call sheets, one-schedule shoot, etc — has been meticulously detailed by Satyajit Bhatkal in the documentary, Chale Chalo, & the book, Spirit of Lagaan.

Was Lagaan the biggest hit, or even the trendsetting film of 2001?

(An old column👇🏽reposting on #25YearsofLagaan)