Guru

There's nothing more delightful than a film which can grab you by the collar and make you a part of its topsy-turvy world for those two and a half hours. Mani Ratnam's biopic Guru made for one such viewing.

Sixty Indian films are set to travel to Stuttgart, Germany, to celebrate the fourth annual 'Bollywood and Beyond Film Festival'.

According to festival director Oliver Mahn, the festival will improve ties between Stuttgart and its Indian partner-city Mumbai.

MADRID: The inaugural Ibiza and Formentera International Film Festival announced Thursday that it will screen 18 films during its May 29-June 7 run.

The films are divided between six regional sections: Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, Africa and co-productions. The winners of each section will compete against each other for the top prize, the Eleanor Falcon.

The first quarter is up, and the report for Bollywood, box-office wise, is bleak. That's the bad news. But there is some good news too. More 'different' films have come out of Mumbai in the last three months than in the past year; filmmakers are finally risking commercial certainty in order to create stories that don't taste and smell the same.

"Guru has been the only certified big hit," says long-time exhibitor Rajesh Khanna, "and that was out back in the first week of January."

There's a lot more to Mani Ratnam's Guru than one has seen on screen so far.

In the version that was played out in theatres across the world, Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan) and his wife Sujatha (Aishwarya Rai) are shown to have twin daughters.

But in the original version, Aishwarya first gives birth to a stillborn child. The birth takes place after she leaves Guru in the city, to go after her brother.

It is time for celebrations to continue in the Bachchan household as two of the films starring Abhishek Bachchan have achieved box office milestones.

While 'Dhoom 2' would be completing 100 days this weekend, 'Guru' too has entered in its 8th week hence completing 50 days at dozens of centers. While for 'Dhoom 2', the credit has gone to Hrithik Roshan in a major way, for 'Guru' Abhishek Bachchan can stake the claim for coming in his own and delivering a superlative performance.

GURUbhai continues to rock with further 1.5 crores in its 6th week. Due to competition from his dad [EKLAVYA], Abhishek did see a fall of 45% after a negligible fall of 15% in the week prior to it. At 40 crores, the film is now a superhit and gets both Mani Ratnam and Abhishek Bachchan a firm footing in the world of Hindi cinema.