Will 'Tees Maar Khan' derail the competition?

Bollywood industry insiders are already salivating with the Christmas bumper weekend that promises to rake in the big bucks as Farah Khan and UTV Motion Pictures’ highly anticipated “Tees Maar Khan” hits the marquee tomorrow.

Indian media research and consulting firm Ormax Media has already predicted Rs500 million for the film’s opening weekend, which will release in about 1600 cinemas worldwide.

Speculation is rife that Khan will pull off a hat trick after the success of “Main Hoon Na” and “Om Shanti Om”. And even while lead star Akshay Kumar has had a dismissal year with flops such as “Khatta Meetha” and “Action Replayy”, Kaif is on a career high with her earlier 2010 outing, “Rajeenti”, turning into one of the biggest hits of the year.

Marketing mayhem

And the film’s cast and crew are leaving no stone unturned in ensuring the marketing blitzkrieg entices the masses – even travelling by train for its music launch and making a pit stop in Dubai, albeit minus lead actor Akshay Kumar and director Khan.

Yet, even with her solo appearance here, the presence of lead actress Katrina Kaif was enough to have screaming crowds converge at Grand Cineplex in droves last week, causing the star to turn tail and run with a simple wave lest the fans got out of control.

However, prior to her blink-and-miss public outing to sell tickets as yet another marketing gimmick, Kaif happily chatted with Emirates 24|7, singing praises about Khan and Kumar, the latter with whom she’s worked with in five previous films.

“We have all worked really hard on “Tees Maar Khan”, but having said that, it’s still Farah’s film all the way. She is mad, but a great director and has done an amazing job,” said Kaif, who has also worked with the choreographer-turned-director on a commercial for the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways.

Ask her about her work equation with Kumar, with whom she has also been romantically linked, the shutters come down and Kaif gave us the politically correct answer, saying: “I have worked with Akshay in so many other films that our comfort reflects onto the screen. He’s a very hard working and dedicated actor and you will love his character.”

All about an ‘item’ number

Yet even as Kaif gushed on about the film’s cast and crew, industry insiders say almost 50 per cent of “Tees Maar Khan’s” success is riding on her tiny shoulders, or more importantly on her sizzling item dance number, ‘Sheela Ki Jawaani’.

The song, which almost got snipped by the Indian censor board, sees the actress at her raunchiest and Bollywood analysts say the track is enough to bring in the audience in rural India, which comprises small townships and villages.

Said Khan earlier: “Katrina spent entire days and nights rehearsing for this song. I had to shout at her and insist she take some rest. I hardly ever saw her chilling on the sets.”

Kaif has her own take, saying: “It is a brilliant song, but the injuries I sustained during the four days of filming it’s a story on its own,” she laughed. “First the bones in my hip started to rub against each other and caused shooting pain to course through my body; this was followed by pain in my knees. The worst was yet to come because at the end of the track, Akshay (Kumar, her co-star in the film) picks me up and flings me across his shoulder. During that stunt, I snapped my neck and was unable to move it for four days.

“Yet the steps themselves weren’t difficult because Farah used to spend a lot of time on sets and she was quite clear about what she wanted me to do in the song. I just followed her instructions.

“Plus, Farah’s assistant Geeta Kapoor also worked hard to check on the steps. I have done a bit of belly dancing in a new avatar. It will be a treat for the audience. We had a lot of fun shooting the song.”

However, Kaif feels terming ‘Sheela…’ as an item number and comparisons with the other popular song of the year, ‘Munni Badnam’ from her ex boyfriend Salman Khan’s film is uncalled for.

She said: “Terming the song as an item number is wrong. I would say it is very special to me. I don’t think about the competition, I just put in my best efforts.”

The size zero debate

Competition or not, the naturally curvy actress, who also just won the accolade for the Sexiest Woman in the World by Asian news magazine “Eastern Eye” for a third time earlier this month, lost nearly 10 kilos for this song.

The physical transformation, of course, has renewed the whole size zero debate once again, which last year saw actress Kareena Kapoor drop an alarming amount of weight to slip into a bikini for the box office failure “Tashan”.

Director Khan confirmed Kaif’s hard work, saying: “In preparation for the filming, Katrina loyally visited the gym on a daily basis, as well as following a healthy diet and abstaining from pleasures such as sweets or chocolates.”

However, Kaif insisted her weight loss was of the healthy kind to produce those washboard abs that she flashes throughout the song.

“I don’t think a size zero figure can act as the USP of a movie. Moreover, its not about a size zero figure but about a toned and curved body,” Kaif reiterated. “As an actor you tone your body according to the script requirement and that’s what I have done.”

What’s the success story?

Few know that the film is actually a remake of Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s film, “After The Fox”, with Khan and co-producers UTV officially purchasing the rights from Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

In an interview with Rediff.com, Khan said: “The plot of the film (of pretending to shoot a film to get away with a robbery) is the same as “After The Fox”… But we’ve changed everything.

“Akshay isn’t a master of disguise, the girl isn’t his sister, we’re on a moving train, and the villains have been changed. Everything’s made bigger and brighter, and more relevant to today’s scenario.”

She added: “And I haven’t tried even once to make Akshay act like Peter Sellers.”

Whatever the case, the film’s only other real competition at the Indian box office is “Toonpur Ka Superhero”, starring real life couple, Ajay Devgn and Kajol. The children’s film combines live action with animation and insiders believe will be unable to hold its own against the juggernaut that is “Tees Maar Khan”.

While the film’s verdict should unravel by Sunday, fans are already lapping up tickets to see Kumar play con artist Tabrez Mirza Khan or Tees Maar Khan, one of India’s most wanted criminals.

One day, international antique smugglers, the Johri Brothers, assign Tees Maar Khan the biggest heist of his life – to rob antiques worth Rs5 billion from a heavily guarded and moving train.

Khan, along with his unwitting gang comprising his actress-girlfriend Anya (Kaif) and a greedy Bollywood superstar (Akshay Khanna) lay the set for a fake Bollywood film production to pull off the heist.

Will they succeed in the con and will the film attract the masses is simply a matter of time now.

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