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Madhuri is a hit!

Madhuri Dixit.

The swelling masses swayed forward and roared as Madhuri Dixit strode up to the dais and made a passionate appeal to keep cable operators from reducing the film industry to penury, and her out of her palatial residence. They noted the passion all right, the appeal... Well, we don't know...

Madhuri was making her pitch for the film industry that struck work on August 18 to object to modern day buccaneers showing their films on cable.

Before we forget, there were others besides La Dixit too. Sunil Shetty, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Prem Chopra, Raza Murad, Johnny Lever, producers Yash Chopra, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Amit Khanna, Pappu Verma, G P Sippy, G P Shirke, N N Sippy, Rikku Rakesh Nath .... They came together at Mehboob Studios, Bombay, in the morning and set off in 50 vehicles for Azad Maidan.

From there a delegation, including Madhuri Dixit, Aamir Khan, Sunil Shetty and some others handed a petition over to the Maharashtra chief minister. But, considering that the CM's more worried about his government remaining around long enough to act on the petition, he could do nothing make some polite inquiries about their next flop.

"The laws are there," K D Shorey, the convenor of the action committee against piracy, had grumbled earlier. "But the problem is that they are not being implemented."

Isn't that always the case?

Star power

But back to those speeches, when Madhuri was still letting the audience have it.

"There are so many people in the film industry. If any one of us sees a movie being illegally shown on cable we should report it immediately and have the concerned people arrested and the movie stopped. If every individual takes such a step on his own, then all piracy can be stopped." A big hand to the lady, everybody!

Madhuri got off and Aamir came on. But, despite all the preparation he's famous for, he found he was handicapped at birth: He was a guy.

He made his point succinctly, but nobody minded that of course.

"The piracy should be stopped at any cost. Otherwise it is a question of survival of 5 million people," he said.

Sheesh, what about us poor cinema junkies then?

Bad times

Well, we'll take Aamir at his word. Five million it is and the rest can go hang. One million within the industry, of which the artistes themselves make up...um... 100,000? Well, we'll skip the math. The rest are technicians, spot boy, maybe even the odd yes man.

So why did Bollywood get so long to get moving? Because the money situation's getting as tight as Uncle Scrooge's fist and there have been 15 films hitting the floor this year compared to 96 the last.

Of course, it would be hubris to launch a film without first propitiating the underworld gods, but there's also the little matter that producers don't have the moolah to either pay the goons or launch a film, their earlier films being scuppered by chances of ventures having not having done too well, thanks to the cable pirates. Knock off about two-thirds of their income, they say.

The pirates strike back!

A poster from Pyar To Hona Hi Tha

While still holding on about the strike, if there's one thing that poured water on all that show of spirit, it came later the next night.

For a cable operator affiliated to the In Cablenet network apparently screened Pyar To Hona Hi Tha in the Four Bungalows area, also in Bombay. The producer, Gordhan Tanwani, had actually paid an agency Rs 500,000 rupees to stop piracy. Now he's lost even that money, we guess.

Sunil hedges his bets

Sunil Shetty.

Sunil Shetty can manage quite well even if the whole industry is drummed out of business. And now, he's just expanded his business network further, starting two virtual reality centres for kids in Bombay.

Sunil, who already runs a few restaurants and boutiques, is also planning something on the lines of an amusement park within the city itself.

"Esselworld and Waterworld (two parks in the suburbs) are too far away. The kids can go there just once in a month or so. There has to be something for the kids in Bombay city itself. I have already bought the land. Now I will be starting work soon," he says. And if he could buy land in Bombay, where real estate comes a little cheaper than gold, we wonder if Sunil Shetty really had to trail along with the strikers.

Unless it was purely for the principle of it.

When cut comes to shove

Raveena Tandon.

Raveena Tandon is miffed. Not a new thing really. Getting to be such a habit that she'll soon be a shoo-in for the Hindi version of The Taming of the Shrew.

But she's been unnaturally quiet about the way her role has been cut in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. She had a decent role in the film till Madhuri Dixit walked in. Thereafter, her role was so brutally chopped that, as a wag put it, they couldn't chop further because they couldn't show less than a frame.

We've heard the lady is maintaining a low profile because this is her only chance to act with Amitabh Bachchan. She's also paired opposite Govinda with whom she has quite a few films ahead, Rajaji, Dulhan Dilwalon Ki, Anari No 1and Dulhe Raja. She has no intention to ruin her pitch.

"I know people will criticise me for taking on the role, but I signed the film when I was going through a bad phase, so it is okay," she says.

Mighty generous, wouldn't you say?

Aamir trims the tum

Aamir Khan.

Just for the record, Aamir Khan is off the weightwatcher's list -- he has no excess weight to shed, we hear.

Already the man looks trimmer and younger due to some determined offloading on his part.

As usual, he's putting mind and thinning body into his upcoming film, Dharmesh Darshan's Mela, starring himself, brother Faisal and Twinkle.

Aamir also realises this is the last chance bro Faisal has. Faisal's first film, Madhhosh, opposite Anjali Jathar, did something at the theatres that no one particularly noticed.

Now Aamir is using his formidable powers to make his sibling grow. What bet you on his chances?

-- V S Srinivasan