2007 | No Smoking And RGV Ki Aag | Under Lens

No Smoking was based on Stephen King's short story Quitters, Inc. Considered as one of the most abstract movies in Hindi Cinema, No Smoking failed to click with the audience especially the intended ones. Definitely it was for the youth and as the title suggest, it had the element of preach which usually doesn't go well with Indian audience. The movie bombed.

The very year, a sense of mock was in air when Ram Gopal Varma came out with his version of Sholay titled 'Aag' (RGV Ki Aag). Remaking a cult classic can be a good idea when done in Hollywood. In India, people don't like them to be remade unless it stars a certain Shahrukh Khan. Aag went on break records of all wrong sorts. The Box Office collections were pathetic and Sippy's had the last laugh.

Why these two movie failed?

Any abstract movie needs to connect with the audience. However, sensibilities of Indian youth was perhaps not that open to ideas as they are today. The unusual screenplay leaving a lot to audience's grey matter was a liitle too much to ask for. On the other hand, John was not half the BO magnet he is today. Anyways, over five years, No Smoking has earned some respect and people rate it as one of best by Anurag Kashyap.

Aag was a blunder when it was conceived. Sippy's opposition, casting of Nisha/Priyanka as Basanti V2.0, Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar V2.0 and Ajay Devgan as Veeru V2.0, RGV's recent BO performances added all the negativity available on block. Reinventing characters and misinterpreting them are two different things. RGV somehow missed this basic point. So-called reinvention of 32 seasons old iconic characters didn't go well with audience and movie was grounded.

Anurag made a good movie which didn't work. RGV made a bad movie which didn't work. Over years we can see that Anurag learnt his lesson but...

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh