| Bombay Velvet | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Anurag Kashyap |
| Produced by |
Vikas Bahl Vikramaditya Motwane |
| Written by |
Vasan Bala Gyan Prakash Anurag Kashyap S.Thanikachalam |
| Based on |
Mumbai Fables by Gyan Prakash |
| Starring |
Ranbir Kapoor Anushka Sharma Karan Johar Kay Kay Menon |
| Music by | Amit Trivedi |
| Cinematography | Rajeev Ravi |
| Edited by |
Prerna Saigal Thelma Schoonmaker |
Production company |
Phantom Films |
| Distributed by | Fox Star Studios |
Release date |
|
Running time | 149 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ?1.20 billion |
| Box office | ?431 million |
Bombay Velvet is a 2015 Indian period crime drama film directed and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, based on historian Gyan Prakash's book Mumbai Fables. It stars Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar in lead roles with Kay Kay Menon, Manish Choudhary, Vivaan Shah and Siddhartha Basu appearing in supporting roles. The film was released on 15 May 2015.
The film, made on a budget of ?120 crore, only took ?22.27 crore in the first week and was a commercial disaster.
Contents
Plot
Set in 1960s Mumbai, the film tells the story of Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor), a street fighter/boxer who is in love with the jazz singer Rosie. Seeing Rosie (Anushka Sharma) with wealthy men further sparks his dream of becoming a "big-shot", believing that if he manages to become rich, he might win Rosie's heart. Balraj and his friend Chimman (Satyadeep Misra) then catch the eye of Kaizad Khambatta (Karan Johar), a wealthy businessman who is impressed by Balraj and offers him to manage his club "Bombay Velvet", which Khambatta uses to further his illegal tasks and activities. He also nicknames Balraj "Johnny", which then becomes his identification. As well as this, Johnny and Chimman fulfill minor tasks for Khambatta, including capturing a dirty photograph of a minister who Khambatta wants to blackmail. This news reaches Jimmy Mistri, a media reporter, who also happens to be the same wealthy man Johnny had previously seen Rosie with.
Remembering that Johnny has a crush on Rosie, Mistri takes advantage of this and sends Rosie to Johnny's club to get her hands on the photograph of the minister. However, Rosie and Johnny eventually fall in love, and Mistri threatens to reveal Rosie's true identity to Johnny. Therefore, Rosie begins to supply information about Johnny & Khambatta's activities to Mistri. After a photograph of a secret meeting between Bombay's big-shots is leaked, Khambatta guesses that it was Rosie supplying the information and orders her to be killed. Johnny hears of this and forms an enmity with Khambatta, the man who brought him into the crime world.
Johnny fakes Rosie's death and makes her act as if she is her long dead twin sister Rita. But soon Khambatta realises the truth, kidnaps Rosie and tries to kill Johnny and they get into a standoff at Bombay Velvet. Khambatta shoots Rosie to provoke Johnny. Johnny angry at this stabs Khambatta and is himself shot dead while trying to carry Rosie to the hospital, outside the club. It is revealed before the end credits that Rosie survived her gunshot.
Cast
- Ranbir Kapoor as Balraj 'Johnny', a boxer/street-fighter
- Anushka Sharma as Rosie Noronha, a jazz singer & Rita
- Karan Johar as Kaizad Khambata, a flamboyant, quick-witted, Parsi media mogul with a high-end attitude
- Manish Choudhary as Jamshed 'Jimmy' Mistry, a newspaper editor
- Satyadeep Misra as Chimman, Balraj's friend
- Kay Kay Menon as Inspector Vishwas Kulkarni, a detective
- Siddhartha Basu as Romi Patel
- Remo Fernandes as a Portuguese man
- Vivaan Shah as Tony, Noronha's chauffeur
- Sarika Singh as Chimman's wife
- Shaanti as Hiral (Khambata's wife)
- Varun Grover (Cameo) as a standup-comedian
- Mukesh Chhabra
- Raveena Tandon (Cameo)
- Mrinmoy Goldar (Cameo)
Production
Development
Kashyap was inspired to make such a film after reading L.A. Quartet, a sequence of four crime fiction novels by James Ellroy, set in the late 1940s through the late 1950s in Los Angeles. The novels inspired him to "dig into the dark trenches of the history of Bombay", where he "found a treasure trove that was never-ending".
Bombay Velvet was initially to be produced by Viacom18 but Fox STAR Studios decided to co-produce it with Phantom Films. It is based on Gyan Prakash's book Mumbai Fables and set in early 1950's towards 1970's, before Mumbai became a metropolis. Prakash is also one of the scriptwriters for the film.
Casting
Although Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan, Ranveer Singh and Saif Ali Khan were considered, Ranbir Kapoor was cast as a street fighter, and Anushka Sharma was cast as a jazz singer. Kapoor explained his casting, "The script of Bombay Velvet just fell into my lap. I read it and I knew immediately that I wanted to be part of Anurag's grand vision, his innovative storytelling, his movie-making process; everything that he does so perfectly." This was director Karan Johar's second film after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge; he was cast as the film's primary antagonist, Kaizad Khambata. His role is said to have been inspired from Russi Karanjia.
Filming
Principal photography began in mid-July 2013 and continued till early September 2013. The first schedule was shot at Sri Lanka's Ranmihitenna Mahinda Rajapaksa National Tele Cinema Park, Hambantota. Filming was also done in Colombo, Galle, and Pasikudah. The second schedule was also in Mahinda Rajapaksa National Tele Cinema Park, Sri Lanka, where Sharma and Kapoor rejoined the filming in February. The second schedule completed in March. Parts of the set was left at the National Tele Cinema Park, rather than being dismantled, as it will be used as a tourist attraction site. The third and final schedule was in Mumbai where shooting was held for a ten-day period.
Editing
The film was released in only one version and was edited in collaboration by Prerna Saigal (The Lunchbox) and Academy Award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Themes
Bombay Velvet is influenced by Classic Hollywood cinema including Film Noir with its stereotypical caricatures like gangsters, gun molls and femme fatales. The movie draws inspiration from gangster films of the '30s and the '40s like The Roaring Twenties and White Heat and neo-noir films like Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.[18][19]
Marketing
A teaser of the film's first-look was released on 28 January 2015, it featured Ranbir Kapoor's avatar in the film "Johnny Balraj", the "big shot". On 29 January 2015, the official first poster was revealed, featuring Johnny Balraj wearing a pinstriped suit and wielding a Thompson submachine gun in each arm.[20] An official trailer was released during the India vs Bangladesh 2015 Cricket World Cup quarter final match, with Kapoor present at the Star Sports 3 studio with the commentators.[21] The film also attracted brand associations worth Rs.20 Crore with brands like Reliance Jio Chat, Saavn, Gillete, GoDaddy among others. To build hype and buzz around the film, Fox Star India and Phantom Films crowdsourced the official fan art for the movie by running a poster design contest on Cupick.[22]
Soundtrack
| Bombay Velvet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Amit Trivedi | ||||
| Released | 24 April 2015 | |||
| Recorded |
YRF Studios, Mumbai A T Studios, Mumbai Nysa Studio, Mumbai Raj Jhon Studio, Chennai Smecky Music Studios, Prague | |||
| Genre | Feature Film Soundtrack | |||
| Length | 1:07:52 | |||
| Language | Hindi | |||
| Label |
Zee Music Company Sony Music | |||
| Producer | Amit Trivedi | |||
| Amit Trivedi chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music director Amit Trivedi began working on the soundtrack after the release of Dev D[23] and has said that the music of Bombay Velvet will reflect the age of 1960s Jazz era of Bollywood.
The lyrics are written by Trivedi's frequent collaborator Amitabh Bhattacharya. The album received rave reviews, including a 300 word review from Milliblog,[24] and was named Best Album of April 2015 by Deccan Music[25]
The song "Fifi" is a remake of the Hindi song "Jaata Kahaan Hai Deewane" from the 1956 film C.I.D. which was originally composed by O. P. Nayyar and written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. It was re-created by Mickey McCleary.
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