The year 2008 has been bad for the Hindi film industry and those connected to it. Here are top five big budget films which were scheduled to release later this year but will now be released only in 2009 due to reasons as varied as clashing dates and errant producers. Take a look
Wanted Dead And Alive
Produced by Boney Kapoor and directed by Prabhu Deva, this Salman Khan-starrer also has Ayesha Takia, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar and Sayaji Shinde in it. Sajid-Wajid will be scoring the music. According to trade sources, Wanted Dead And Alive has been made on a budget of approximately Rs 30 crore and an additional Rs 5 crore will be spent on its publicity.
The movie was scheduled to release on October 2, 2008 but will now be postponed to next year. It is learnt from the film circles that the dates of Salman's Dus Ka Dum, Wanted… and Yuvraaj were mixed up, hence the delayChandni Chowk To China
Previously titled Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo and also Made In China, Chandni Chowk To China is directed by Nikhil Advani and stars Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone in the lead. Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty too plays an important role in this film and the music is by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. With Rohan Sippy as the producer, the film has been made on a budget of approximately Rs 65 crore and Rs 10 crore has been marked out as the publicity budget.
Due to a problem in some prints of the film, a part of Chandni Chowk will have to be re-shot in a studio in Mumbai, pushing the release date from October 24, 2008 till some time next year.
Kambakkth Ishq
Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and directed by Sabir Khan, Kambakkth Ishq stars Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor along with Hollywood biggies Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Beyonce Knowles and reportedly Denise Richards. The budget of the film is a whopping Rs 90 crore and another Rs 15 crore will be spent on publicity.
Initially scheduled to release on December 5, 2008, this multi-starrer has been postponed to 2009, as worldwide publicity will take three months.
Victory
This is a cricket-based story starring Harman Baweja and Amrita Rao. Victory will be Harman's second release after his debut film Love Story 2050. Written and directed by Ajit Pal, the film is being made on a budget of approximately Rs 25 crore and has many cricket personalities playing themselves.
Victory was scheduled to release on November 21, 2008, but the makers didn't want to take a risk by releasing it along with Karan Johar's Dostana. Due to the line-up of big films at the year-end and the producers not getting the desired multiplexes, this Harman-Amrita-starrer will be released only in 2009.Saif-Deepika's untitled film
With Saif Ali Khan turning producer and Imtiaz Ali in the director's chair, this Illuminati Films' release was supposed to hit the theatres on December 25, 2008 but has been postponed to February 2009.
The shoot has been extended for more songs and new scenes, but according to the film circle the main reason for the postponement is that the makers didn't want this Rs 25–27 crore flick to clash with Aamir Khan's action film Ghajini.
Looks like hardcore Bollywood buffs have a lot to look forward to in 2009.
Anupamaa
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