Tuesday, 12th October saw hoards of people thronging to Landmark, Phoenix Mills (Mumbai) to catch a glimpse Bollywood’s Bad Boy – Salman Khan. The event? Dabangg’s VCD and DVD launch by Reliance Big Home Video. While the fans and the press eagerly awaited Sallu’s arrival, his brother Arbaaz Khan, sister-in-law Malaika Arora Khan, director Abhinav Kashyap and the female lead Sonakshi Sinha made an entry, albeit without Mr. Dabangg. Explaining his absence Arbaaz said, “He would have loved to be here but as you know he has an eye infection and the doctor has advised him not to exert himself.” Though the absence did cause a damper, what everyone really wanted to know was that why was the DVD being released so soon. Arbaaz stated that nowadays, most of the business is done in the first four weeks of the release itself and hence it made sense to bring out the DVD in the fifth week instead of encouraging piracy. He hoped that other producers would follow suit.
Sonakshi thanked everyone for making the movie a big success and for accepting her so well. She sportingly repeated her famous dialogue from the movie “Thapad se darr nahi lagta saab, pyaar se lagta hai” twice on audience’s demand with Arbaaz rightly stating that it is one of the few famous dialogues of recent times which was said by the heroine and not by a hero! When asked about her father, Sonakshi replied that her father was really happy with her success and she really learned a lot from him. In fact when the crowd started getting noisy, Sonakshi yelled “Khamosh” in true Shotgun style!
RJ Rani from Big FM asked the director Abhinav a very honest question as to how much did the script actually contribute to the success. Abhinav stated that a lot of factors contribute to the success of the movie and they would be lying if they said that they hadn’t expected the movie to be a hit. The fact that scale of the success would be so huge – the collections, as stated by Arbaaz, are between those of 3 Idiots and Ghajini – was something which they hadn’t anticipated. Not that this movie was without controversies. In the question-answer session, when a reporter asked him about a Pakistani band’s alleged claims that the song Munni Badnam Hui was ripped off from one of their songs, Abhinav said, “I am 36 years now. And I have been hearing a folk song since I was 6 which was played at all weddings at my place. The song is inspired by this folk song and I have already stated that in all the interviews I have given. Folk songs do not belong to anyone.” Mentions of Munni Badnaam Hui obviously brought the focus to “Munni” aka Malaika who said that though she wanted the song to work, she had no
idea that the song would be such a great hit. When someone asked as to how she felt from being the Chaiyya Chaiyya girl to now being Munni, she stated, “I am not complaining!”
Reliance Big Home Video Chief Operating Officer – Sweta Agnihotri, who was also present at the event gave a glimpse of the features that would be present in the DVD. “People who really enjoyed the film would surely enjoy the making (of the film) as well,’ she said. The film includes the making of the songs and the movie as well as a narration by Shatrugan Sinha introducing the cast and crew of the film. The DVD is prized at Rs.299 and the VCD at Rs. 99. A part of the bonus features was shown which was well appreciated by the crowd. Limited autographed editions of the DVDs were present which saw the fans lining up to buy them.
Salman fans, don’t miss this chance of seeing your favorite star at your home anytime you want!
