Journey of the 100-Crore Bollywood Film

Salman Khan’s Dabangg 2 which released on 2012 is set to breach the Rs 100-crore mark, reckon film trade experts. At the end of the week, net collections stood at Rs 40.17 crore. It was expected that the collection to pick up significantly and by the end of the first week, the film could well become the latest entrant in the exclusive “100-crore club”.

Now, what really is this 100-crore film that seems to have become the new benchmark in Bollywood, and that which gets producers and distributors to leave no stone unturned in their attempt to break the barrier? Why has the 100-crore film become an essential element in an actor’s CV in order to establish him as a “bankable” star?

Is the 100-crore film a myth and a product of impeccable PR machinery? Or is it a result of a transformation in the economics of the film trade? And how, just how, did the elusive 100-crore mark become commonplace over the last few years? The term has become rather ubiquitous and everyone from the commoner lining the street leading to Film City to the spotboy on the set is talking about it. 

Aamir Khan was the founder-member of the club in 2008, when his Ghajini became the first Bollywood film to gross 100 crore at the box office, taking only 18 days (less than three weeks) to do so. He followed it up in 2009 with 3 Idiots which took half the time (nine days) to reach the magical figure. Incidentally, 3 Idiots remains the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time with worldwide collections of Rs 339 crore.

Similarly Shah Rukh Khan too has had a smooth ride in 100 crore club. Entering the club with Ra.One, the film entered the 100 crore club in 10 days and made a collection of 115 crores. Following up his achievement with Farhan Akhtar’s Don 2, which entered the club in 13 days, the film made an income of 106 crores! However, his best performance in the club came with Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan which entered the club in 11 days and earned a lifetime collection of 120.65 crores. Shah Rukh’s next film Chennai Express directed by Rohit Shetty maintain his smooth run at the 100 crore club.

However, the concept of 100 crore does challenge the qualitative values of films by basing their benchmark on numbers more than the strength of their scripts. Yet, the faulty concept is still a raging trend now and the glories of the club are here to stay, for now!!

Somali Bhowal

( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

Sting Operation – A boon to audiences

Undoubtedly sting operations are a legitimate weapon for investigative journalists but it is not a new practice. It has been into practice since ages. We all have heard a lot of stories during our childhood from our grandparents, about kings who would dress up like a labour and would roam around to learn what the people have to say about them or their kingdom. Wasn't that a sting operation as well- hiding the identity and using false identity to attain first hand information?

Contemporary sting operations may be termed as technical advancements of this ages old practice of truth finding. Sting operation catches a person live on camera committing a crime or talking about it; the tapes tell the story. However, the questions arise after this. How many of those who were caught on camera could be punished in the court of law? Does the court accept these sting operations as major evidence in the case? How can a journalist prove that he did not plot the sting operation? Is it acceptable to violate certain legal or social norms in order to attain some video footage? No personal or professional interests or enmity exists behind the operation; and the most important- How will the "public interest" clause will be justified? Probably, it is the last question which leads to most of the debates. For me proven public interest and effective end results are most important. Sting operations must lead to legal action and punishments. If it fails to achieve this, it remains simply as a TRP booster for a few weeks and nothing beyond it.

All sting operations are about organized people in law enforcement and their civilian operatives which usually consists of people that are either friends or are in some way related to the law enforcement for the purpose of entrapping or framing. Sting operatives are paid, trained liars and are immune to prosecution because government allows and permits police to keep their sting operations covert and therefore they are not required in courts to admit to such operations and because of this any and all complaints on sting operations tend to get ignored and suppressed and stonewalled and victims of sting operations have no recourse at law for remedy should they become victim of a sting operation!

Thus, because of this organized corruption running rampant within our system most people know little or nothing about sting operations and that is by design because the system does not WANT people to know or understand in detail what a sting operation is or what they do or what they are about!

PRIYA DEY

( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

How much is too much for anything as freedom of speech?

What should be one’s priority? Freedom of speech or the love for one’s nation? The recent incident at JNU certainly blurred the reality. As per the Indian constitution, the Right to Freedom in Article 19 guarantees the Freedom of Speech and Expression, as one of its six freedoms. But it has also imposed restrictions to make sure that freedom of speech does not lead to defamation. However, at recent times the freedom is highlighted to an extent that it is endangering the country’s pride. People express themselves in any way they feel like even if required in a seditious way but mask it under what they call their Right to protection under Freedom of Speech.

The JNU row provides the perfect example. A demonstration was organized on the college campus on 9^th February to commemorate the death of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist who was executed in 2013 for his role in the 2001 attack on India’s Parliament. Though it raised eyebrows but the students got into legal trouble after they allegedly raised anti-Indian slogans to mourn and commemorate the death of Afzal Guru. According to what several media reports, Anti-India slogans like "Kashmir ki azadi tak jung chalegi, Bharat ki barbadi tak jung chalegi" ("War will continue till Kashmir's freedom, war will continue till India's demolition") were reportedly raised at the protest meet. Soon after the university’s student union president Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid were arrested on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy, under section 124 of the Indian Penal Code.

JNU has widely been known for its intense political life on campus. It is believed that the students of the university follow the teachings of B.R. Ambedkar “Educate, organize, agitate”. And thus any issue of concern gets new life within the campus. Now the question which arises is that, does commemorating someone’s death allows the person to shout out defamatory slogans against his own country? One has the right to organize a demonstration as per his free will but that does not mean in any way that the person can go all out to raise slogans pertaining to supposed destruction of one’s country. However, when Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested for shouting anti-national slogans almost the entire campus stood beside him claiming he was just exercising his right to freedom.

Although some videos later emerged which said that Kumar didn’t raise the slogans, but the act of holding a rally to protest against Afzal Guru’s hanging negates the idea of what patriotism is all about. And it’s not sugar coating it. One person, who has proven with his actions and words that he means harm to my nation and could have gone to any lengths to harm my country and its people for his own agenda is being idolized by the students of a university in my country. Yes I understand the societal and other different implications, but there are some lines which should not be crossed, ideally. So, thus when such an institution crossed that thin line, it definitely demeaned our nation in the worldwide stage.

Ipshita Paul

(PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

Give all Indians the right to social security

It is the sum of all government regulations and provisions that aim at enhancing the people’s living conditions, including legislations, acts, laws, regulations and planning in the fields of old age, wage, unemployment, and social exclusion, sickness and health care, and income security measures such as food security, employment, education and health, housing, social insurance, and social assistance.

In the Indian context, the State bears the primary responsibility for developing appropriate systems for providing social protection and assistance to its workforce. The matters relating to Social Security are listed in the Directive Principles of State Policy and the subjects in the Concurrent List of the Constitution of India.

There are four types of social security programs in India like contributory schemes, welfare schemes, social assistance and promotional social security. Accident insurance, medical facilities, old age pension, gratuity, provident fund, maternity benefits, income security, and unemployment allowances are some of the statutory schemes administered by the government. Many of these are operated by boards at the state level. The central government imposes a cess on employers for workers engaged in, for example, lime-stone, dolomite, iron ore, manganese, chrome, and mica mines, the beedi industry, the film making and the theatre industry. 

Centrally sponsored schemes are the National Social Assistance Programme with its three components of old age pension scheme, national family benefit scheme, and national maternity benefit scheme. Nationwide programmes are the public distribution system, the Integrated Child Development Programme, the Mid Day Meal programme in primary schools, the supplementary Nutrition Programmes, the rural employment programmes (National Rural Livelihood Mission), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

In India, the organized sector accounts for about 6 percent of the total work force, benefit from a fair minimum standard of social security. The principal social security laws enacted in India for organised sector workforce are:

—  Employees State Insurance Act, 1948,

—  Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952,

—  Employees Compensation Act, 1923,

—  Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 and

—  Payment of Gratuity Act,1972.

However, there are many challenges to the social security schemes like Funding of social security measures and the unavailability of reliable data. There is lack of involvement of the people in designing the packages of the diverse schemes. The schemes are poorly designed and executed at household targeting mechanism. Lack of coordination and overlap in delivery of programs reduces accountability of those responsible for social security delivery. Thus the right to social security to each and every Indian is far from reality and needs to be put a check on.

Shruti Sinha

( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

Virtual Reality- Netizens vs Citizens

What is virtual reality? In its simplest form, it means ’near-reality’. Reality is what we experience by way of our senses and our brain processing those experiences as information. It thus stands to reason then, that if we can present our senses with made-up information, our perception of reality would alter in response to it. Virtual reality, thus, is that version of reality which is ‘perceived’ as real. But let’s dig deeper. In a very technical and straight-forward definition, virtual reality may be described as a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. The person becomes an indisposable factor of this virtual world, performing a series of actions conducive to its development. And that gets me to the core of my leitmotif - Citizens vs. Netizens, who are more important?

Citizens are members in a political community (usually a country) and they possess rights to political participation. For example, I am a citizen of India and those who we call ‘green-card holders’ are actually citizens of the United States of America. Netizens on the other hand, are Internet users who utilize the internet networks from their home, workplace, or school (anywhere in the world) and usually have a self-imposed responsibility to make radical changes in its dynamics while encouraging free speech and open access. Thus, it can be noted, that the very existence of the ‘Virtual World’ or ‘Virtual Reality’ is dependent on the existence of its ‘netizens’.

Citizens, are now an old world concept. Though the physical world has not been completely lost, the lines between reality and virtual reality has blurred greatly. The word citizen also has a limitation to it. The moment we utter ‘citizens’, we are limiting their existence within a boundary but a ’netizen’ has validity in every corner of the world, no geographical boundary can restrict its continuance. You can be a citizen of India but you are a ‘netizen’ of the world. Thus, the power or freedom of a ‘netizen’ cannot be curtailed by boundaries. The connecting media - the Internet - plays a significant role in opening up spaces for citizens, regardless of their gender and social status, to participate in political, economic, social and cultural life. In India, the Internet took more than a decade to move from 10 million to 100 million users. However, it took only three years for it to jump from 100 to 200 million. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in the country stood at 190 million at the end of June 2013. These are times of radical and rapid changes!

Governments of nations now chose to stay in touch with their citizens through the internet, thus consciously converting them to ‘netizens’. They are implying the internet to serve their citizens. As technologies continue to evolve, the internet is having a significant impact on all aspects of life-society, economics and politics. To further stress on the aspect of how ‘netizens’ have emerged to be more important than citizens, a very simple yet significant example should be stated. ‘Digital signatures’. Digital signatures have now been introduced and legalized to give digital existence and recognition to every human being worldwide. Slowly but surely, citizens are emerging as ‘netizens’.

Thus, who holds more ground in the present times? The active participants of the physical world or the cyber citizens of the virtual world? The answer is simple. We have stopped living in the physical world. Even though we are physically present here, we have been reduced to victims of digitization. Our existence makes sense to us only when it is validated on public forums and other such internet portals. The very day-to-day actions are governed by how they are or would be perceived by the world of internet.

Virtual Reality is a warped version of the real world and yet we are prudently getting engulfed in this realm of technology and innovations. ‘Netizens’, have thus gained a much more strong hold than Citizens and in the times to come, I can foresee the symbiotic existence of both.

Ankita Chatterjee

( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

New Political Alliance- a success or a failure story?

Any political journey is filled with the instances of political parties forming an alliance to run the country. Though they don’t always share a common ideology, it’s often for the want of gaining power and meeting the political objectives that bring them together. The trend of forming an alliance with other parties started during the 90s. What started this phenomenon is the gradual empowerment of the regional parties. Unlike in the past, the political discourse today is not restricted to Congress and BJP. While public support for these parties has gradually decreased, the regional parties have continued to gain overwhelming support.

Be it the pre-election or the post election alliance, the fundamental reason behind accommodating other parties’ agenda is the need to hold on to the power, even if it means shaking hands with the one-time rival. Looking at some examples of alliances from 2016 assembly polls to be held we find how these political parties change their support for their own benefit. The once Congress-TMC alliance is this year against each other. Congress is joining hands with CPI (M) whereas BJP which was last elections against TMC, this year is providing an indirect support to this political party. In this game of gaining the power, every political party gets into alliance with each other to defeat their respective rival party. But in the very next elections itself we can see, how they change from friends to enemies just to survive in the race game.

Thus these joining and breaking of alliances have been continuing for years and will still be carried forward in the future. But to comment on the fact that, whether it is a success or a failure story is very controversial. They tend to fail to focus on the people who will be actually electing them. Bunches and bunches of promises during campaigns and after winning the polls forgetting them in a click is the usual trend for these parties during the elections trauma. Therefore any political alliance is a success only if they can work for the people of the state or country to make a better place for the people to live in or else such an alliance is a failure for both the people as well as the parties.

Sneha Menon

( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

Internet has made us slaves

I am a 90’s kid. Things have changed a lot since then. Not only in technology but there has been a huge shift in the attitude of people too, along with the advancement of technology. In the earlier days, the open field used to be our playground whereas these days we see a child glued to their desktops for hours laboring their fingertips to play all the games that they play.

I remember reading comics, playing cassettes and listening to radio. These things are almost obsolete in this generation. Earlier, friend requests were carried forward by our fellow mates rather than facebook and good news were brought to us through letters on a cycle by a postman rather than by emails. There used to be a time where there was only one television in the whole neighborhood rather than five televisions in one single house. Even though there was only Doordarshan,  people were content with whatever they had. Same was the scenario with telephones but these days on an average, everybody has their own private cell phone.

Internet has changed the whole traditional way we lived our life. It serves as a boon as well as a curse. People stay glued to their cell phones and desktops for hours browsing the social media and neglecting the real world outside. Online games are very popular these days. Children and adults too sit back at home and play for hours with people they don’t even know. But internet has gifted us with instant knowledge of anything and everything that we desire to know. It has given us a platform to share our views, opinions and talents. It has given us the space to expand one’s business and much more. But it has snatched the warmth of friendship and relationships. From citizens we became netizens and live a virtual life; a life guided by our cell phones and desktops. We are highly dependent on these machines for our day to day living.

We have become slaves of the technology we mastered. It gives me a chill when I see the park outside so quiet with no children outside and the swing’s standing still. Are we really turning into a generation of dummies with the virtual world taking us over fully? The question is still left unanswered.

Abhirup Chowdhury

(PG MEDIA 2015-2017)