Size matters

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Saawariya's hero Ranbir Kapoor recently went on an undercover mission to check out cinegoers' reactions to the film's trailer

A poster of Saawariya showing Ranbir Kapoor

Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali is curious to learn how the public will react to his latest film Saawariya. And evidently he isn't waiting for the film to release to gauge the response.

Sanjay, along with his film's leading man and debutant actor Ranbir Kapoor, and Uday Singh, head of Sony Pictures India, visited numerous theatres across town on Friday. All this was done to measure the public's response to Saawariya's trailers that were shown during the screening of Hey Babyy, which released on the same day.

A source from a theatre in the city informs, "Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ranbir Kapoor and Uday Singh of Sony Pictures, were seen hurrying from one screen to the next, checking out cinemas across the city. They were on a mission, scanning theatres, doing an impromptu check, to gauge the audience's response to the trailer of Saawariya. They made incognito entries into theatres, waited till the trailer was screened and made an exit, moving on to the next theatre."

Seven hundred prints of the trailer have been released in the city. Incidentally, the trailer doesn't give away much, except for revealing that it's a love story

Sanjay Dutt has okayed the Rs 250 crore deal between White Feather Films and Eros International

White Feather Films and Eros International have tied up for a major Rs 260-crore deal to make 15 films over a period of three to five years. Incidentally, this deal is different from the rest considering that it is a non-exclusive deal. This means that White Feather has the option to continue with their deal with Balaji Telefilms and also work on other individual projects.

A source informs, "The negotiation for the deal has been going on for some time but Sanjay Gupta wanted to wait for Sanjay Dutt's affirmation to the deal. Now that Sanju is out, Gupta has gone ahead and given a green signal to the deal. It is the biggest deal in terms of finance.

The deal is about Rs 260 crore for making 15 to 20 films for the next three to five years. In fact, Eros has already taken over the rights of Paankh, Great Indian Butterfly and Dus Kahaniyaan. Their first co-venture will start from Alibaug which both companies will co-produce and an official announcement will follow soon. However, the deal between Balaji will stand and White Feather and Balaji will continue to make films. White Feather is also in the final stages of films with UTV Motion Pictures and Adlabs."

Hansal Mehta, CEO, White Feather Films says, "Yes we have signed a deal with Eros but at this point of time I cannot give you any details. We will give you the details at a press statement in the coming week."

John Abraham in Russia while shooting for No Smoking

No Smoking's director Anurag Kashyap has been fuming since Friday. He had specially released 400 prints of No Smoking trailers, to be shown during Heyy Babyy's interval. However, Anurag was in for a rude shock when he learnt that his film's trailers were mysteriously missing from cinema halls.

Anurag says, "We hurriedly put together No Smoking's trailer as we wanted it to be shown with Sajid Nadiadwala's Heyy Babyy in the theatres. I was shocked to find out that only the trailers of my film were missing, while trailers of Om Shaanti Om, Saawariya and Bhool Bhulaiya played at cinema halls, as planned. Only my film was missing."

The director is quite furious as 400 prints of No Smoking have disappeared without a trace. "400 prints is a lot of money. What's even more shocking is that a trailer, which was attached to the negatives of the film, has been snipped off! So, the No Smoking trailer is not featured anywhere. I don't know who's responsible for it. But I am really annoyed that something like this has happened. We had planned the trailers to be released with Heyy Babyy, our plan is now completely messed up because of this incident," adds Anurag.

When we questioned officials from the multiplexes, about this, we received a vague answer like, "The trailers of No Smoking did not play in the theatres due to some technical problem."

Meanhwile, Devang Sampat, Vice President of Marketing and Media, Cinemax said, "The trailers which play in the theatres comes with the prints that the concerned production house sends us. We play the prints as they come to us. We do not make any change whatsoever to the final prints that we receive."

So, where have the trailers of No Smoking disappeared? And whodunit?