By Fuad Omar.
Mohabbatein, India's biggest overseas blockbuster was finally released on
DVD and video last week, and that too, to the very same reception it
received when it was originally unleashed onto UK audiences last October.
The now-cult film achieved phenomenal success going on to out-perform
Hollywood blockbusters such as The Blair Witch Project 2 and What Lies
Beneath at the box office and become the biggest film to mesmerise audiences
throughout the UK, recording unprecedented returns. Released by YashRaj
films, a banner synonymous with good cinema and also the very company which
has provided previous UK Box Office hits from India such as Dil To Pagal Hai
and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the movie was last year's most anticipated
venture as it saw the directorial return of master filmmaker Aditya Chopra,
after a five year gap which was spent nurturing the masterpiece he was to
present on celluloid.
"The DVD is doing very well," said a spokesperson from Metro music, a
leading Asian entertainment retailer in Southall. "We've shipped on average
50 a day and that's only to our mail order customers, there are more coming
into the shop and buying it," he said.
"The video is also doing very well given not everyone has a DVD player, and
especially because this one is not in the UK format."
The DVD of Mohabbatein has been released in NTSC, isolating a few
movie-lovers whose players or televisions will not run the American format.
"I really wanted the DVD but there's no point if I can only watch it on the
computer," said Mr J Singhal of Ealing. "Everyone at home loves the movie
but our TV is not compatible with the format and so we have settled for the
video. But it's not too bad, we tend to buy mostly videos anyway," he said
reflecting how the DVD take over has yet to hit the UK as much as initially
anticipated. Ironically the fact that most people in the UK are still using
video systems, it further re-iterates the success of Mohabbatein, given that
it is succeeding on a format which has yet to become common as well as the
standard VHS cassette.
The two-disc bonanza includes extras which provide a unique insight into the
movie with a 'Making of' featurette, deleted scenes which will delight any
of the film's fans, an unused song, interviews with the stars and a photo
gallery as well as trailers. It also features the inclusion of English
subtitles allowing it to find itself on the shelf in the World Cinema
section too of many video shops. The film won the BBC Asia Award recently
for Best Film and has Indian stalwarts Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan as
well as ex-Miss World Aishwarya Rai, and the six newcomers we have featured
interviews with over the past few months. Given the feedback this
publication has received to these, it has established the arrival of six new
superstars who are all set to shine further in a host of new films.
Selling fast within days of it appearing on the market, Mohabbatein has
announced to the world the very proclamation its theatrical release
symbolised: Indian cinema is here to stay.
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