BREAKING NEWS: YJHD CAUGHT CHEATING!

Posted June 03, 2013 @ 13:04 pm
by mtv editor

For all its claims of maturity, Bollywood, or rather its masala fuelled sub genre, has never been big on logic or plausibility. 100 years down, we can proudly boast that our sets have grown more lifelike, the dance sequences more elaborate and the costumes more glitzy, whereas our sense of logic just about draws level with that of a seven year old's.

And after watching an Audi miraculously zap itself out of the back of a descending plane via parachutes, we think it's about time producers add a disclaimer intoning the audience to politely look away each time a movie ousts the basic laws of rationality and physics. Or the basic laws of geography, as in the case of the recently released Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which had its Bloopers List inaugurated at the hands of the Hon'ble Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah.

The crackling chemistry between the lead pair and the zingy dance sequences might have been designed to melt the heart of the hardest cynic, but unfortunately even Deepika's never ending legs couldn't distract the audience from the fact that the first half of the film fell prey to one glaring error: Stretching the concept of artistic license to breaking point, the makers have taken the liberty of passing Kashmir off as Manali.

Barring a handful of scenes, majority of the footage from the protagonists' fun-filled trek was shot in Gulmarg, Kashmir and credited as Manali. A fact that didn't go down well with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who outed the film's secret on his Twitter handle; 'It is irritating when we roll out the red carpet and facilitate the shoot only to have people believe it's Manali #YJHD'

'Those of you planning to visit Manali because of what you saw in #YJHD except for the temple and Span resort it's all Gulmarg,' read another tweet from the disgruntled CM's Twitter profile. Abdullah's wrath seems justified, given that he went the extra mile to ensure that the movie's cast and crew were met with full co-operation from the Gulmarg officials, and even went as far as to host a dinner for the Bollywood stars during their stay there.

At the time of publishing, the production house was yet to respond to the allegations; the incident will most probably be filed under artistic license and swept under the carpet, but if you ask us, a few remedial Geography lessons are in order!

Is it that big of a deal if they lied about the location of the film?

It matters as many governments go out of their way to ensure that film producers have it is easy while shooting in their states. Several incentives such as discounts, permissions to shoot at places where filming is not allowed etc are given with the expectation that when the film comes out it will promote tourism of the state. So in a way the state governments are investing in the film with the assumption that it will benefit them. This also gives some relief to producers as it might have cost them more otherwise.

Omar Abdullah did go out of his way to ensure YJHD producers had it easy in Kashmir. It would have definitely ticked him off seeing so many advertisements using YJHD footage promoting trips to Manali when he wanted these same advertisement to encourage tourists to come to Gulmarg. YJHD has benefited Himachal Pradesh more than it has to Jammu and Kashmir.

Manali has got the dirty/polluted polythene bug now.🤢